US President Donald Trump will invite his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to Washington in the autumn, the White House press secretary said on Twitter on Thursday, in a move that caught top US intelligence officials by surprise.   

The invitation comes as confusion still abounds over what exactly went down in the private, one-on-one meeting between the two presidents in Helsinki this week. 

There has been talk of agreements reached, but there have been no formal announcements.   

Hanging over the summit in Helsinki and all of Trump’s dealing with Putin are the concerns of Russian meddling in the US election in 2016. The exact date of Putin’s expected visit is not confirmed, but the US holds mid-term elections in November.   

The US intelligence community and most politicians agree Russia did intervene in 2016, though Trump has flipped back and forth, putting him under intense political pressure. He was forced to confirm that he believes his own intelligence agencies over Putin.   

“In Helsinki, [Trump] agreed to ongoing working level dialogue between the two security council staffs. President Trump asked John Bolton to invite President Putin to Washington in the fall and those discussions are already underway,” press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted, referring to national security advisor John Bolton.   

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was surprised by the news of the invitation, as the tweet was read out to him by a reporter Thursday.   
Washington (dpa),Jul 20 2018