RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he wanted U.S. President Donald Trump to be his guest in Moscow, an idea that the White House welcomed despite lingering criticism over the Helsinki summit. The Russian leader said on a visit to South Africa for an economic conference that ‘appropriate conditions’ were required in both countries for another summit to take place, an apparent reference to a political uproar in the United States last week after the two men met. The White House said Trump was enthusiastic about another summit. Trump has said he wants to improve ties between the two nuclear powers, whose relations have dipped to a post-Cold War low in recent years…Separately, U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said he was considering the possibility of the first talks in years between the defense chiefs of the United States and Russia. Mattis said there had been no decision. Trump was criticized at home for failing to confront Putin publicly over Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election, and for seeming to contradict his own intelligence agencies on the threat from Russia.”
–Roberta Rampton, Denis Pinchuk, “Putin says Trump can ‘be my guest’ in Moscow, White House welcomes idea,” Reuters, July 27, 2018 8:04 am