Putin seeks to 'fully restore' U.S.-Russia relations

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said he wanted to "fully restore" strained ties between Washington and Moscow, during a visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "I would very much like your visit to Russia to benefit Russia-US relations and promote their development," Putin said as he received Pompeo at his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Putin also praised the Mueller report, despite its findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election. "Despite the exotic nature of Mr Mueller's commission, on the whole he conducted quite an objective investigation and confirmed the absence of any collusion between the US administration and Russia," he said.

Moscow has rejected these claims "from the very beginning as complete nonsense". Pompeo earlier told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that US President Donald Trump was committed to improving relations with Moscow.

Pompeo underlined to Putin that Trump wanted to make "our two peoples more successful and, frankly, the world more successful, too." "President Trump wants to do everything we can and he asked me to travel here to communicate that. "Some of our cooperation has been excellent -- on North Korea, on Afghanistan, we've done good work -- (and) counter-terrorism work -- together. These are things we can build upon." (AFP) CPS

(With inputs from agencies.)