<p>On Monday, President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for their highly anticipated conference in Helsinki, Finland. ;</p>
<p>Prior to the meeting, Trump tweeted that the relations between U.S. and Russia have never been worse, but implied that that was about to change. ;</p>
<p>&#8220;Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!&#8221; tweeted Trump Monday morning, a few hours before the summit with Putin. ;</p>
<p>On Monday morning, the world leaders emerged after their two-hour meeting to give a press conference about their discussion and negotiations.</p>
<p>Putin spoke to reporters first and called the negotiations with Trump a success and also said they were fruitful. ;</p>
<p>&#8220;The current tension and atmosphere essentially have no solid reason behind it. The cold war is a thing of the past,&#8221; said Putin. He said that both Russia and the U.S., as the world&#8217;s leading nuclear powers, &#8220;bear a special responsibility for maintaining international security.&#8221;</p>
<p>As expected, the topic of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was addressed at the press conference. ;</p>
<p>&#8220;The Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into American internal affairs including the election process,&#8221; said Putin. ;</p>
<p>Trump said that they discussed the allegations and that Putin gave &#8220;strong and powerful&#8221; denials.</p>
<p>&#8220;All I can do is ask the question &#8211; my people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it&#8217;s Russia. I have President Putin he just said it&#8217;s not Russia. I will say this, I don&#8217;t see any reason why it would be but I really want to see the server but, I have confidence in both parties,&#8221; said Trump. ;</p>
<p>Trump was quick to blast Democrats, the FBI, and Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller for escalating the Russia interference debacle. ;</p>
<p>&#8220;I think the probe is a disaster for our country,&#8221; said Trump. &#8220;We ran a brilliant campaign [in 2016] and that&#8217;s why I&#8217;m president.&#8221;</p>
<p>The leaders pointed out that although the disagreements between the countries are &#8220;well known,&#8221; they are willing to work together on their common interests. ;</p>
<p>&#8220;If we&#8217;re going to solve many of the problems facing our world, then we&#8217;re going to have to find ways to cooperate in pursuit of shared interests,&#8221; said Putin. ;</p>
<p>One of these common interests is denuclearization. ;</p>
<p>&#8220;After today I am very sure that President Putin and Russia want very much to end that problem and they&#8217;re going to work with us and I appreciate that commitment,&#8221; said Putin.</p>
<p>Russia and the U.S. also plan to work together on the regulation of the international oil and gas markets. ;</p>
<p>&#8220;Neither of us is interested in the plummeting of the prices and the consumers will suffer as well,&#8221; said Putin. ;</p>
<p>Trump also mentioned that the countries would continue to work together against terrorism. The U.S. recently alerted Russia of a planned terrorist attack in Saint Peterburg. Putin personally called Trump and formally thanked him for the tip. ;</p>
<p>On the topic of Syria, both Putin and Trump are interested in assisting in a humanitarian mission. Putin has already discussed this briefly with the French President Macron.</p>
<p>&#8220;If we can do something to help the people of Syria to get back to some form of shelter on a humanitarian basis,&#8221; said Trump.</p>
<p>Trump made it clear in the press conference that both the U.S. and Russia should be held accountable for the poor relationship between the countries. ;</p>
<p>&#8220;I feel we both have made some mistakes,&#8221; said Trump, who also said the Russia probe kept the leaders apart. ;</p>
<p>But Trump said that was in the past. ;</p>
<p>The leaders plan to continue the open dialogue and this meeting was just the &#8220;first step toward a brighter future and one toward a strong dialogue and a lot of thought.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note</strong>: A lot was accomplished here. While no treaties were signed (none was expected to be), they have a basis for moving forward to ;cooperate on ;some intractible problems.</p>