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Putin arrived in Helsinki to meet with Trump
HELSINKI, July 16. / TASS /. Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Helsinki, where his first outside international summits will be held on Monday full-length meeting with US President Donald Trump. The plane of the Russian leader landed at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport around 13:00 local time (coincides with Moscow). The head of the presidential administration of Finland, Yucca Siukosaari, meets the Russian president's plane.
The American leader arrived in the Finnish capital on Sunday. It is planned that Putin and Trump will come to the presidential palace in the center of Helsinki, go to the photographers, and then begin negotiations without strangers in the Gothic hall of the palace in the presence of translators. According to the organizers, this part of the summit is allotted about 1.5 hours, however, as previously stated in the Kremlin, there are no limits on the time - that is, how long exactly the conversation will last depends on the presidents themselves.
After that, Russian-American negotiations will be held in the Mirror Hall of the Palace in the format of a working breakfast with the participation of delegations, and the leaders themselves will tell the journalists about the results of the summit at a press conference originally scheduled on the protocol schedule at 16:30. As expected, the presidents will not accept documents at the meeting, but will limit themselves to oral summing up of its results, and also answer four questions of journalists - on two issues on each side. After the summit, Putin is scheduled to have a conversation with the President of Finland Sauli Niinisto.
The summit will take place against the backdrop of the enhanced security measures that traditionally accompany meetings of this level. In the special security zone is the presidential palace. In connection with the summit for four days (from Friday to Tuesday), control was introduced on the borders of Finland with the EU countries. A precautionary measure was adopted in order not to miss people who might threaten security or public order in connection with the visit of presidents.
Moscow expects that the summit will set the tone for the work on restoring bilateral relations. "It is very important, if the Americans are ready for this, to start dismantling the rubble [in bilateral relations]," Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told journalists earlier. According to him, if the meeting in Helsinki will contribute to this and there will be some signals of such a plan, "then this will be the most important result of this summit." Ushakov noted that the Russian delegation "is ready to consider literally all the key issues of the bilateral and international agenda."
The US president, on the eve of the meeting with Putin, said that he did not have high hopes for the summit in Helsinki, although he did not exclude the achievement of "certain extremely exceptional" results.
