National security advisor John Bolton announced Friday he extended an invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Washington, DC.
“We have invited President Putin to Washington,” Bolton said at a news conference during a visit to ex-Soviet Georgia, days after meeting Putin and senior security officials in Moscow.
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It was not immediately clear if Putin had accepted the invitation. Putin last held a meeting with a U.S. president on American soil in 2015 when he met Barack Obama on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly.
Trump’s earlier invitation to Putin sparked an outcry in Washington, including from lawmakers in Trump’s Republican party, who argued that Putin was an adversary not worthy of a White House visit.
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Trump and Putin plan to hold a bilateral meeting in Paris on Nov. 11 on the sidelines of events to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War One.
Bolton said that the Paris meeting would be brief.
Bolton's invitation comes on the heels of last Friday's announced indictment of a Russian national for ongoing attempted interference in U.S. politics, Putin's mocking of the U.S. seal, Cyber Command's launch of a new campaign to counter Russian operatives targeting the midterms, and Bolton's own dismissal of Russia's 2016 campaign interference as having no significant impact on the election.
White House invites Putin to Washington (Reuters)
No olives? Putin pokes fun at US seal amid arms pact dispute (AP)