US and Russian Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have agreed to meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. What do we know about the relationship between the leaders of the two countries?
TRUMP ON PUTIN
Trump has in the past made positive and admiring comments about Putin, which have long drawn criticism of him for being soft on Russia. He rejects this, saying that no US president has ever been tougher on Moscow.
Trump has called Putin a strong and smart leader and said he got along great with him during his first term in the White House. Since the beginning of his second term, however, Trump has criticized Putin's behavior in the "absurd" war in Ukraine and stated that this conflict is "destroying" Russia.
Putin "has nothing to worry about, he's not doing that well," Trump told reporters on January 20, the day of his inauguration.
"Russia is bigger, they have more soldiers they can lose, but that's no way to run a country," Trump said, threatening more sanctions and tariffs on Russia if Putin doesn't agree to end the war.
PUTIN ON TRUMP
Last month, Putin said he had always been guided by pragmatism and trust in his relationship with Trump, and expressed support for the latter's false claim that he, not Joe Biden, was the real winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Putin said he and Trump had a lot to talk about, from Ukraine to energy prices. Putin also praised Trump's courage when a gunman tried to kill him last year, saying he acted like a "real man."
COLLUSION, ELECTION INTERFERENCE INVESTIGATION AND 2018 SUMMIT
During Trump's first term, U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller spent nearly two years investigating Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election - in which Trump defeated Hillary Clinton - and trying to determine whether there was collusion between Moscow and Trump associates. Mueller's 2019 report concluded that Russia interfered in the election largely through hacking and disinformation operations, but found no collusion or coordination with the Trump campaign. In response to the Mueller report, Trump declared, "After three years of lies, slander, and persuasion, the Russia hoax is finally dead."
In July 2018, during a summit with Putin in Helsinki, Trump shocked his own aides and the American public when - contradicting the conclusion of his own intelligence agencies - he said he accepted the Kremlin leader's "extremely strong and powerful" position of denial that Moscow interfered in the 2016 US election to sabotage the Clinton campaign.
The late Republican Senator John McCain said that no previous US president "has ever put himself in a more humiliating position with a tyrant". The next day, Trump backtracked and said he had made a mistake.
DOES PUTIN HAVE COMPROMISING MATERIAL ON TRUMP?
Speculation that Putin may have some control over Trump and be able to blackmail him has been fueled by the 2017 release of a document known as the "Steele dossier", prepared by a business intelligence firm run by a former British spy.
It suggested, among other things, that Russia may have collected shocking details about alleged contacts with prostitutes during Trump's visit to Moscow in 2013. Trump has said the dossier is "fake news" that was spread by opponents to harm him.
Many of the allegations in it have never been verified, and Trump's lawyers have said the document is "grossly inaccurate" and contains "numerous untrue, false or fabricated allegations".
During the Helsinki summit, Putin was asked directly whether Russia had any "compromising materials" on Trump or his family.
Putin said he was unaware of Trump's trip to Moscow and that it was "complete nonsense" to suggest that Russia had collected compromising material on every senior American businessman who came to Russia.
translation: Plamen Yotinski, BTA