Trump-Putin summit to include 90-minute 1-on-1 meeting, lunch with aides

published 16 July 2018

On Monday, President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet one-on-one for 90 minutes in Helsinki, joined only by their interpreters.

The summit is taking place in Finland's presidential palace, with Trump and Putin also scheduled to have lunch with aides and attend a joint press conference. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have spoken out against the meeting, coming just days after the Justice Department announced it was indicting 12 Russians accused of hacking Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign emails in 2016.

Trump told CBS News on Sunday that he is going into the meeting with "low expectations," and while no major breakthroughs are expected, experts say just getting to talk with Trump is a win for Putin. "Russia has done nothing to deserve us meeting them in this way," Nina Jankowicz, a global fellow at the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute, told The Associated Press. "Not only is this a P.R. coup [for Putin] no matter what happens, Trump could say nothing and it would help to legitimize his regime."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.