Friday, July 20, 2018

How Putin's GRU spy network casts a shadowy web of covert operations across globe - Daily Mail

July 20, 2018

How Putin's GRU spy network casts a shadowy web of covert operations across globe

GRU was founded in 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution

The GRU is believed by British intelligence to have been behind the Novichok attack on Sergei Skripal, who was a former colonel Russia's military intelligence until he defected to Britain.

The agency, whose best known emblem is a bat hovering above a globe, was founded as the Registration Directorate in 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution.

Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin insisted on its independence from other secret services and until the fall of the Soviet Union it was subordinate to the more famous and feared KGB, the notorious internal security service.

The KGB was ultimately succeeded by the FSB - the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation run by Vladimir Putin, who a KGB officer for 16 years and later briefly the head of the FSB.

According to Yuri Shvets, a one-time KGB agent, GRU officers were referred to as 'boots' - tough but unsophisticated killers.

'The GRU took its officers from the trenches,' he said, while the KGB picked its agents - including Putin - from the USSR's best universities.

The GRU trains agents and then sends them abroad as military attaches in foreign embassies, according to experts.

But once a member of the GRU, it is believed to be exceptionally difficult to leave. And those who do so to join foreign agencies are punished savagely.

Viktor Suvorov, a GRU officer who defected to Britain in 1978, said new recruits were shown a video of a traitor from the agency being burned alive in a furnace as a warning. 

It is believed that GRU members are still  staffing Russian embassies and using their diplomatic posts as cover to spy on host countries.

That is why the Obama administration expelled 35 Russian diplomats as retaliation against the hacking of the Democratic Party just weeks before leaving office.

It is also why the British government expelled 23 diplomats on March 23 following the outrage in Salisbury. The US expelled 60.

The nerve agent was hidden in a perfume bottle, suggesting one of the assassins may have been a woman, and that Ms Sturgess sprayed the deadly substance onto her wrists after finding it in a park.

Her partner Charlie Rowley, 45, was left fighting for his life after also being contaminated by the chemical weapon.

It comes as an inquest opens today into the death of Dawn Sturgess (pictured), who died this month after apparently coming into contact with the same batch of Novichok +20
It comes as an inquest opens today into the death of Dawn Sturgess (pictured), who died this month after apparently coming into contact with the same batch of Novichok

It is understood mother-of-three Ms Sturgess was exposed to at least 10 times the amount of nerve agent the Skripals came into contact with.

Mr Rowley says that after finding the bottle, Ms Sturgess sprayed Novichok straight on to both of her wrists, the source said.

Investigators are working to the theory that the substance was in a discarded perfume bottle found by the couple in a park or somewhere in Salisbury city centre, most likely the park now being searched.

The Metropolitan Police, who are leading the investigation, have declined to comment on the latest claims.

But a source with knowledge of the investigation told the Press Association: 'Investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack through CCTV and have cross-checked this with records of people who entered the country around that time.

'They (the investigators) are sure they (the suspects) are Russian.'

According to reports from US security officials, police have recovered grainy CCTV images of persons who inadvertently killed Dawn.

Counter-terror cops are closing in on identifying the suspects, thought to be from Mr Skripal's former employers, Russia's military intelligence service the GRU.

Police outside Mr Rowley's home in Amesbury, Wiltshire, on July 5 after he and Ms Sturgess picked up a perfume bottle containing the chemical weapon Novichok +20
Police outside Mr Rowley's home in Amesbury, Wiltshire, on July 5 after he and Ms Sturgess picked up a perfume bottle containing the chemical weapon Novichok

A police officer stands guard over a cordoned off rubbish bin after Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley fell ill in Amesbury +20
A police officer stands guard over a cordoned off rubbish bin after Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley fell ill in Amesbury

Both Mr Skripal and his daughter, as well as Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, of Wiltshire Police, made miraculous recoveries after being on the brink of death.

All three were treated at Salisbury General Hospital, where Charlie is now being cared for.

The perfume bottle could support the theory that a woman was involved in the initial hit by up to six people against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury on March 4.

Ms Sturgess' inquest will be opened today in Salisbury and the hearing is expected to be adjourned to allow police inquiries to continue.

On Wednesday, a fingertip search of Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury was carried out.

The park and other locations in Salisbury and nearby Amesbury were cordoned off last month after the exposure of the couple to the nerve agent.

Searches of properties could last months after 400 items were recovered, officers warned, while waste and litter will be removed as part of the sweep of public areas.

Last week counter-terrorism detectives revealed they had found a small bottle containing Novichok at Mr Rowley's home in Muggleton Road, Amesbury.

They are trying to establish where the container came from, and how it came to be in his house.

A team of international experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was called in to independently verify this.

They have finished collecting samples which will now be analysed at two OPCW labs before the results are reported back to the UK.

Public Health England said the risk to the public remains low but it continued to 'strongly advise' not to pick up any unknown 'strange items' such as syringes, needles, cosmetics or similar objects made of materials such as metal, plastic or glass.

A timeline of the key developments in the Salisbury poisoning case
2010 - Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer jailed for spying for Britain, is released and flown to the UK as part of a swap with Russian agents caught in the United States. He settles in Salisbury.

March 3, 2018 - Yulia Skripal arrives at Heathrow Airport from Russia to visit her father in England.

March 4, 9.15am - Sergei Skripal's burgundy BMW is seen in suburban Salisbury, near a cemetery, where his wife and son are commemorated.

March 4, 1.30pm - The BMW is seen driving toward central Salisbury.

March 4, 1.40pm - The BMW is parked at a lot in central Salisbury.

A police officer stands guard outside the Zizzi restaurant where Sergei and Yulia had lunch before they collapsed in a nearby park +20
A police officer stands guard outside the Zizzi restaurant where Sergei and Yulia had lunch before they collapsed in a nearby park

March 4, afternoon - Sergei and Yulia Skripal visit the Bishops Mill pub.

March 4, 2.20pm to 3.35pm - Sergei and Yulia Skripal have lunch at the Zizzi restaurant.

March 4, 4.15pm - Emergency services are called by a passer-by concerned about a man and a woman in Salisbury city centre.

Officers find the Skripals unconscious on a bench. They are taken to Salisbury District Hospital, where they remain in critical condition.

March 5, morning - Police say two people in Salisbury are being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance.

Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey was among the first police officers on the scene and was himself hospitalised +20
Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey was among the first police officers on the scene and was himself hospitalised

March 5, afternoon - Wiltshire Police, along with Public Health England, declare a 'major incident'

March 7 - Police announce that the Skripals were likely poisoned with a nerve agent in a targeted murder attempt.

They disclose that a police officer who responded to the incident is in serious condition in a hospital.

March 8 - Home Secretary Amber Rudd describes the use of a nerve agent on UK soil was a 'brazen and reckless act' of attempted murder

March 9 - About 180 troops trained in chemical warfare and decontamination are deployed to Salisbury to help with the police investigation.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Moscow might be willing to assist with the investigation but expresses resentment at suggestions the Kremlin was behind the attack.

March 11 - Public health officials tell people who visited the Zizzi restaurant or Bishops Mill pub in Salisbury on the day of the attack or the next day to wash their clothes as a precaution.

March 12, morning- Prime Minister Theresa May tells the House of Commons that the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

March 12, afternoon - Public Health England ask everyone who visited Salisbury town centre on the day of the attack to wash all of their clothes and belongings.

Officers wearing chemical protection suits secure the forensic tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia fell ill +20
Officers wearing chemical protection suits secure the forensic tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia fell ill

March 14 - The PM announces the expulsion of 23 suspected Russian spies from the country's UK Embassy. 

March 22 - Nick Bailey, the police officer injured in the attack, is released from hospital. 

March 26 - The United States and 22 other countries join Britain in expelling scores of Russian spies from capitals across the globe.

March 29 - Doctors say Yulia Skripal is 'improving rapidly' in hospital. 

April 3 - The chief of the Porton Down defence laboratory said it could not verify the 'precise source' of the nerve agent. 

April 5, morning - Yulia Skripal's cousin Viktoria says she has received a call from Yulia saying she plans to leave hospital soon.

Dawn Sturgess died in hospital on July 8 +20
Dawn Sturgess died in hospital on July 8

April 5, afternoon - A statement on behalf of Yulia is released by Metropolitan Police, in which she says her strength is 'growing daily' and that 'daddy is fine'.

April 9 - Ms Skripal is released from hospital and moved to a secure location.

May 18 - Sergei Skripal is released from hospital 11 weeks after he was poisoned.

June 30 - Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley fall ill at a property in Amesbury, which is eight miles from Salisbury, and are rushed to hospital.

July 4 - Police declare a major incident after Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley are exposed to an 'unknown substance', later revealed to be Novichok.

July 5 - Sajid Javid demands an explanation over the two poisonings as he accuses the Russian state of using Britain as a 'dumping ground for poison'.

July 8 - Mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess, 44, dies in hospital due to coming into contact with Novichok.

July 10 - Mr Rowley regains consciousness at hospital, and later tells his brother that Dawn had sprayed the Novichok onto her wrists.

July 19 - Police are believed to have identified the perpetrators of the attack.

Ex-South Korean President Sentenced To 8 More Years In Prison - NDTV

Ex-South Korean President Sentenced To 8 More Years In Prison
South Korean President Guen-hye guilty of charges of illegal recieval of funds from the country's spy agency involving 8 years of imprisonment
World | AFP | Updated: July 20, 2018 14:48

Ex-South Korean President Sentenced To 8 More Years In Prison
Ex South Korean president Park Geun-hye convicted of charges of illegally receiving funds

SEOUL: Disgraced former South Korean president Park Geun-hye was convicted of charges including illegally receiving funds from the country's spy agency today and given eight more years in prison, on top of her current term.
 Park, the South's first female president, was impeached last year after huge street protests over a sprawling scandal, and was jailed for 24 years for corruption and abuse of power in April.

Today's penalty - issued in her absence after she refused to attend the Seoul Central District Court - came after a separate trial for pocketing money from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and improperly intervening in 2016 in the selection of her ruling party's parliamentary candidates.

The Seoul Central District Court gave Park six years for taking 3.3 billion won (USD 2.9 million) from the spy agency, and two years for the electoral offence. The penalties apply consecutively, meaning the 66-year-old now faces a total of 32 years in prison.

"The accused received some three billion won over three years from the three NIS chiefs. Through this crime, the accused incurred a considerable amount of loss to the state treasury," said senior judge Seong Chang-ho.

Three former NIS chiefs testified they had funnelled the funds to Park on her orders, the court said. The judge rebuked Park, who denied the charges, for being "un-cooperative" throughout the court hearing and questioning by prosecutors.

Park allegedly squandered the taxpayer money on maintaining her private house, financing a boutique where her secret confidante Choi Soon-sil - the central figure in the corruption scandal - had Park's clothes made and other private purposes, including massage treatment.

Choi was found to have taken advantage of her "long private ties" with Park to extort bribes worth millions of dollars from businesses including telecommunications giant Samsung and retail conglomerate Lotte.

She is serving a 20-year sentence for abuse of power, bribery and meddling in state affairs. Earlier today, prosecutors asked an appeals court to extend Park's sentence for her corruption and abuse of power conviction to 30 years, arguing the original penalty was too lenient.

They also asked for her fine to be multiplied sixfold to 118.5 billion won.

"The accused has never repented or made any sincere apology before the people," prosecutors said in a statement. "And since October 2017, she has never made any appearance at court."

Park's own lawyers asked for her conviction to be overturned, saying she made no gains herself when businesses "donated" funds to foundations controlled by Choi, and that her impeachment and ouster meant she had already taken "political responsibility" for the case. The Seoul High Court will issue its decision on August 24.

At her first trial, Park was convicted of receiving or demanding more than USD 20 million from conglomerates, sharing secret state documents, "blacklisting" artists critical of her policies, and firing officials who resisted her abuses of power.

Park is the eldest daughter of late dictator Park Chung-hee, who oversaw human rights abuses but is also credited with driving the country's economic development in the 1960s and 1970s.

After her father was assassinated in 1979 by his spy chief, Park isolated herself and was befriended by Choi, the daughter of a shady religious figure, who went on to act as a secret mentor throughout her political career. (AFP)   MRJ



Jimmy Kimmel asked Americans to name any country on a map, and the results were terrifying - Independent

Jimmy Kimmel asked Americans to name any country on a map, and the results were terrifying
Posted July 17, 2018 by Jake Hall in news 
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American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is no stranger to a viral video.

Week after week, his team scour the streets of America to ask strangers deceptively easy questions – usually with hilarious repercussions.

His most recent test was devised in response to Trump’s European visit: “It’s important that America has strong relationships with, and knowledge about people in other lands, and that responsibility extends to all of us, not just the president,” he emphasised.

In order to measure this knowledge, his team went out with a map and a simple request: name any country.

Jimmy Kimmel

@jimmykimmel
 We asked pedestrians to name ANY country on a map. It didn't go well...

12:41 AM - Jul 14, 2018

Unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents failed spectacularly. Plenty failed to realise that Africa was in fact a continent, not a country; when prompted to specify, one man correctly named South Africa, but inexplicably thought it was located in North West Africa. Seriously – the clue’s in the name.

One woman laughed, exclaiming:

My geography is so horrible, I can’t name anything!

She then pointed to South America and asked if it was South Africa. When her mistake was clarified, she failed to name a single country; the interviewer, bewildered, asked, “Did you go to school, college?”

Smiling, she clarified that she had before exclaiming soberly:

Yes, that’s the sad part!

Another man confidently pointed to Alaska, incorrectly stating it was “Greenland, or Iceland or something.” Others failed to even attempt to name any; one woman, when asked to pinpoint an African country, seemed shocked: “Who knows stuff like that?”

Luckily, a young boy in a baseball cap emerged at the tail-end of the video to list an impressive number of countries. Scrolling seamlessly through countries in South America, he then went on to identify others including Papua New Guinea, Greenland and New Zealand.

Maybe Michael Jackson was right – maybe children really are the future.

North Korea has the largest number of SLAVES in the world, with one in ten people subjected to forced labour - including children - Daily Mail

North Korea has the largest number of SLAVES in the world, with one in ten people subjected to forced labour - including children
North Korean children are sent to plant crops, pick fruits, or even collect coal
Global Slavery Index interviewed 50 defectors and found all but one described servitude either as children or adults, or both
Children risk expulsion if they refuse and money earned goes to their school
By ARTHUR MARTIN FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 00:38 AEST, 20 July 2018 | UPDATED: 00:38 AEST, 20 July 2018

One out of every 10 North Korean citizens are forced into slavery at some point in their lives, a report found today.

The oppression of 2.6 million subjects in the regime includes the abuse of schoolchildren who are coerced into exhausting manual work from a young age.

The Global Slavery Index, which conducted a worldwide investigation into human slavery and forced marriage, found that child labour is an integral part of North Korean society.

Pupils of primary school age are ordered to carry out arduous manual labour for two-month stints.

North Korean pupils of primary school age are sent away to plant crops, pick fruits, or collect coal by railway tracks for two-month stints. Pictured: Kim Jong Un with schoolchildren +3
North Korean pupils of primary school age are sent away to plant crops, pick fruits, or collect coal by railway tracks for two-month stints. Pictured: Kim Jong Un with schoolchildren

The GSI interviewed 50 defectors from the regime and all but one described servitude either as children or adults, or in some cases both (pictured: soldiers marching on Kim Il-Sung square during a military parade in 2017) +3
The GSI interviewed 50 defectors from the regime and all but one described servitude either as children or adults, or in some cases both (pictured: soldiers marching on Kim Il-Sung square during a military parade in 2017)

Some are sent to farmers to plant crops and pick fruits, while others are told to collect coal by railway tracks.

The children do not get paid for the work - the money goes to their school instead. Any student refusing to participate risks punishment or even expulsion.

Details of widespread slavery comes amid ongoing negotiations between North Korea and the United States which have focused on denuclearisation and military matters rather than human rights issues such as slavery.

The GSI interviewed 50 defectors from the regime and all but one described servitude either as children or adults, or in some cases both.

Trump says there is 'no time limit' for ending Kim Jong-Un's...

Kim gets shirty during visit: ‘Extremely enraged’ Jong-un...

One male defector said: 'I constantly did farm work until the sixth year in elementary school. We did everything by hand, or with hand hoes and buckets.

'In the spring, we had to work for about one month in the summer, when we did weeding. We finished with our classes in the morning and then we spent the afternoon working.

'In the autumn we worked longer, for about two months, as there was a lot of work associated with the harvest.' Another female defector described how, as a teenager, she was ordered to help building a highway in Pyongyang for six months.

The servitude continues into adulthood, when citizens are coerced into forced labour and threatened with detention in labour camps if they refuse.

One defector said: 'You cannot refuse. If the work unit leader orders you to go to work, you have to do it. If you don't, then your food rations are cut off' (pictured: Kim Jong Un) +3
One defector said: 'You cannot refuse. If the work unit leader orders you to go to work, you have to do it. If you don't, then your food rations are cut off' (pictured: Kim Jong Un)

Communal tasks could include a morning shift of road paving, or more sporadic projects including the construction of statues or reinforcing flooded river banks. Workers are instructed to bring their own tools or use their hands.

Another defector said: 'You cannot refuse. If the work unit leader orders you to go to work, you have to do it. If you don't, then your food rations are cut off.' Dr Jang Jin-sung, who defected in 2004 and who is now a GSI panellist, said citizens do not realise they are slaves because they have been indoctrinated by Kim Jong Un's regime from an early age.

Dr Jang, who rose to become the equivalent of poet laureate to Kim Jong-il, the current ruler's father, did not escape enforced work even though he belonged to the elite.

'I didn't know it [was slavery] when I was in the country, but looking back it was,' he said. 'As a child I had to do farm work in the summer. I didn't think of it as forced labour but as a righteous duty to the state. This is just life, this is how life works. You just get on with it.' Citizens were conditioned to see their obligations as moral and good, he added.

Fiona David, GSI's head of research, said she had found the pervasive system of social control 'deeply shocking'.

Her research found that some exploited workers are actually paying to have a job to avoid detention.

'To avoid being sent to a labour camp you need to have a job number and to have a job number you have to pay for it,' she said. '[This] means that you're technically employed but it doesn't mean that you get paid.' In 2014, the UN released a report that found North Korea 'does not have any parallel in the contemporary world' in regard to the scale of its human rights violations.

The report highlighted North Korea's political prison camp system which holds up to 130,000 people in four camps for alleged 'political crimes'.




Nearly 70% of Republicans approve of Trump's handling of Helsinki summit, CBS poll finds - USA Today

Nearly 70% of Republicans approve of Trump's handling of Helsinki summit, CBS poll finds
William Cummings, USA TODAY Published 10:46 p.m. ET July 19, 2018
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During President Donald Trump's visit to Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, comments made by both world leaders caused controversy leading to accusations of treasonous actions. USA TODAY

Less than a third of Americans approve of how President Donald Trump handled his summit Monday in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but almost 70 percent of Republicans think he did a good job, a new poll found.

Overall, 55 percent of the people surveyed were unhappy with Trump's performance at the summit while about a third — 32 percent — approved, according to the CBS News poll published Thursday.

Most of the displeasure with Trump's showing in Helsinki was related to a joint press conference the president held with Putin after the pair met privately for two hours. When asked about Russian election meddling, Trump appeared to reject the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community and to accept Putin's denial that Russia's hands were clean.

While 83 percent of Democrats disapproved of Trump's handling of the summit – and only 8 percent approved – 68 percent of Republicans approved of the president's showing and 21 percent said they disapproved. Among independents, 53 percent were not happy with how Trump handled the summit and 29 percent approved.

The Bubble: Trump disgraced the U.S. with his 'Surrender Summit' in Helsinki, liberals say

More: President Trump continues to blame media for avalanche of criticism over his Vladimir Putin summit


There was also a sharp party split over the issue of Russian meddling in American elections. Almost nine in 10 Democrats said they believed U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, while only about half of Republicans accepted that conclusion.

Moving forward, 89 percent of Democrats said they feared that Russia will meddle in the 2018 midterm elections, in contrast with 61 percent of Republicans who said they were not concerned.

When it comes to Trump's handling of Russia in general, 46 percent of respondents thought Trump's approach is "too friendly," up from 35 percent in April 2017.

More than 1,000 people were surveyed by telephone from July 17-18 for the poll, according to CBS News. The margin of error was plus or minus four percent.

Trump Putin: Incredulity as Russian leader is invited to visit US - BBC News

July 20, 2018

Trump Putin: Incredulity as Russian leader is invited to visit US

"That's going to be special" - US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats learns of the Putin visit while at an event
President Donald Trump has invited Russian leader Vladimir Putin to visit America, in a move that drew startled laughter from a US intelligence chief.

"That's gonna be special!" said Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, when he was told about the invitation during a live interview.

A row is continuing over Mr Trump's first summit with Mr Putin, in Helsinki, where they talked privately.

Opposition Democrats say there should be no more one-to-one talks.

Your toolkit to help understand the story
Trump's 'most serious mistake'
"Until we know what happened at that two-hour meeting in Helsinki, the president should have no more one-on-one interactions with Putin," said the top Democratic senator, Chuck Schumer, in a statement. "In the United States, in Russia, or anywhere else."

Mr Trump's presidency has been clouded by allegations that Russian hackers meddled in the 2016 US presidential election in his favour. The Kremlin denies the allegations.

In Helsinki, Mr Putin offered access to 12 Russians indicted in absentia by the US authorities over the alleged interference, on condition the Russian authorities could question 12 Americans over a different case. Mr Trump first praised the suggestion as "incredible" but later rejected it.

Since his return from Finland, he or the White House have had to correct or clarify other comments regarding Russia, creating confusion and prompting the Democrats to demand details of his private talks with Mr Putin.

Trump prepares a sequel
By Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington

Donald Trump has tweeted that the summit with Mr Putin was a "great success" and people at "higher ends of intelligence" loved his Helsinki news conference. As if to underline that point, plans are already under way for a sequel - this time in Washington DC.

Never mind that the White House has spent three days trying to clean up the political fallout from the summit amid bipartisan criticism, or that the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in 2016 continues apace.


Media captionTrump says he "misspoke" at Putin summit, but is it too late? Anthony Zurcher explains
Mr Trump may have been encouraged by recent opinion polling showing that while the public at large is uneasy with Mr Trump's Russia policies, his Republican base - by a sizeable majority - is fine with his performance.

The president campaigned on closer ties with Russia, a goal that had been thwarted during his first year in office. With his base still behind him, Mr Trump appears ready to press on with his efforts.

What do we know about Putin's potential visit?
Mr Putin, in power in Russia since 2000, last visited the US in 2015, when he met President Barack Obama, Mr Trump's predecessor, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

Mr Putin said he would meet the US "halfway" over access to indictees
On Thursday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted that discussions about a visit by Mr Putin to Washington DC this autumn were already under way. There was no immediate word from Russia.

The announcement appeared to come as a surprise to US intelligence chief Mr Coats, who was told about it during a live interview at the Aspen Security Forum in the state of Colorado.

He added that he did not yet know what Mr Trump and Mr Putin had discussed during their meeting, at which only their interpreters were also present.

What was Putin's 'incredible offer'?
Asked at the post-summit news conference in Helsinki whether he would extradite 12 Russian intelligence agents indicted in the US for hacking Democratic Party computers, Mr Putin said he would meet the US government "halfway".

He said Russia wanted, in turn, to question US citizens in a case against financier Bill Browder, who was instrumental in the US imposing sanctions in 2012 on top Russian officials accused of corruption.

Russian ambassadors react to Trump remarks at Helsinki summit
At the same news conference, Mr Trump said: "He [Mr Putin] offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigations with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer."

However, now he says he "disagrees" with the proposal.

The idea of allowing a foreign power to quiz US citizens sparked outrage and the US Senate voted 98-0 against it. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was "not going to happen".

Mr Browder has told the BBC he is glad Mr Trump "isn't going to hand me over to President Putin".

President Trump has also clarified remarks at the news conference in which he said he saw no reason for Russia to have meddled in the 2016 US election - despite US intelligence concluding just that.

Trump on Putin: "As the leader of a country, you would have to hold him responsible, yes"
Speaking to CBS News on Wednesday, Mr Trump said he held Mr Putin personally responsible for interfering in the election, and that he was "very strong on the fact that we can't have meddling".

Mr Putin has also described the summit as "successful" but warned "there are forces in the United States that are prepared to casually sacrifice Russian-US relations".