As relations between Russia and the United States have spiraled into a cycle of diplomatic tit-for-tat, with both countries recently closing embassy properties belonging to one another, there has been speculation that the Kremlin— which U.S. intelligence officials accuse of meddling in the 2016 presidential election— might be disillusioned with a president who, as a candidate, pledged to get along with Moscow.
The United States last week ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco as well as two diplomatic annexes in Washington, D.C., and New York, retaliating for an earlier Kremlin order that the U.S. Embassy in Russia cut hundreds of its staff.
Putin today said Russia's foreign ministry will file a lawsuit against the United States over the closures. "We'll see how effective the vaunted American court system works," he said at a news conference after the BRICS summit in Xiamen.
Nonetheless, Putin said he was still counting on being able to work with Trump in solving issues between their two countries.
“Trump, in his actions, is led by the national interests of his country, I by mine,” Putin said at the news conference. “I am really counting on us being able to find, as the current U.S. president has been saying, some kind of compromises in resolving bilateral and international problems.”
Putin was also asked to comment on discussions in the United States that Trump could face impeachment during his presidency as multiple investigations continue into alleged ties between members of his campaign team and Russian intelligence, and into whether he might have obstructed justice in firing former FBI Director James Comey.
Putin declined to comment, saying, “It’s not our business.”
“I would suggest that would be absolutely wrong to discuss a possible development in the internal political situation in the U.S. itself,” he said.