Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there are "forces" at work that are trying to hamper an improvement in U.S.-Russia relations. Commenting on his summit with President Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland, on Monday, Putin said, "We see that there are forces in the United States that are prepared to casually sacrifice Russian-U.S. relations, to sacrifice them for their ambitions in the course of an internal political battle in the United States," Reuters reported.

President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin hold a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

Speaking after meeting Russian diplomats at the foreign ministry in Moscow, Putin added that "those forces are powerful" and that they were trying to "disown the summit results." Putin did not name or specify what kind of forces he was alluding to. Trump and Putin's summit in Finland caused a furor after Trump appeared to publicly question the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Putin denied that Russia interfered in the U.S. democratic process and Trump said that the Russian president was "extremely strong and powerful in his denial."