Trump invites Putin to visit US

US President Donald Trump has invited Russian leader Vladimir Putin to visit the US in the autumn, his press secretary says.

Sarah Sanders tweeted that discussions for the visit were already under way.

Earlier Mr Trump rejected a proposal by Mr Putin that Russia be allowed to question US citizens.

The two leaders held a summit in Finland on Monday but few details of what they discussed have emerged.
There has been no word from Russia about a second Trump-Putin meeting.

Controversy has raged over the Helsinki summit, with Mr Trump having to correct his own words from the press conference which followed it.

But on Thursday Mr Trump said the meeting was a “great success” and he was looking forward to their next meeting.

What reaction is there to the planned Putin visit?
The announcement appeared to come as a surprise to US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who was told about it during a live interview at the Aspen Security Forum in the state of Colorado.

He laughed and said: “That’s going to be special.”

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

US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for Mr Trump to reveal what he discussed with Mr Putin.

“Until we know what happened at that two-hour meeting in Helsinki, the president should have no more one-on-one interactions with Putin. In the United States, in Russia, or anywhere else,” he said in a statement.