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US President Donald Trump has appeared to make light of Russian election interference during a meeting with the country's leader, Vladimir Putin.

A smirking Mr Trump wagged his finger at the Russian president and said: "Don't meddle in the election, please."

The pair were holding talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan.

It was their first meeting since Robert Mueller concluded his investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia was behind an effort to influence the presidential election with a state-authorised campaign of cyber-attacks and fake news stories planted on social media....

Mr Putin smiled as the US president delivered his light-hearted reprimand on election interference.

But he was reserved ahead of the G20 talks with his American counterpart, only commenting that the pair had "things to discuss".

However, in a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times, published on Friday, he offered his thoughts on both global and domestic politics.

He said liberalism was "obsolete", and praised the rise of populism both in Europe and the US. He also described Mr Trump as a "talented person" who knew how to relate to voters.

"It's a great honour to be with President Putin," Mr Trump said at the outset of the talks on Friday. "We have a very, very good relationship."

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The levity with Mr. Putin, however, dominated his first full day in Osaka and came at a time when the Kremlin leader has felt emboldened on the world stage, flexing Russian muscle in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and even South America. In an interview published just hours before the meeting, Mr. Putin celebrated the rise of the populist right in Europe and the United States and declared that traditional Western-style liberalism “has become obsolete.”

Mr. Trump did not dispute Mr. Putin’s view and seemed almost to share it. As reporters and photographers entered their meeting room to set up cameras and microphones on Friday, the American president offered the sort of disdain for journalists sure to resonate with an authoritarian like Mr. Putin.

“Get rid of them,” Mr. Trump said. “Fake news is a great term, isn’t it? You don’t have this problem in Russia, but we do.”

“We also have,” Mr. Putin insisted in English. “It’s the same.”

In fact, Mr. Putin has made a hallmark of his nearly two decades in power a takeover of major news outlets. Russia’s relatively few independent journalists often come under intense pressure and, in some cases, have even been killed.

It fell to other leaders gathered in Osaka to volunteer the rebuttal to Mr. Putin’s worldview that Mr. Trump did not. “What I find really obsolete are: authoritarianism, personality cults, the rule of oligarchs,” said Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council. “Even if sometimes they may seem effective.”

The bonhomie between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin came in sharp contrast to Mr. Putin’s frigid meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, their first since a former Russian spy living in her country was poisoned by agents that Britain has traced to Russia. Stiff and severe, Mrs. May refused to smile or exchange pleasantries as she sat down with Mr. Putin. Aides later said she upbraided him behind closed doors over the poisoning, calling it a “truly despicable act.”

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President Donald Trump enjoyed breakfast here Friday with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, heaping praise on the Saudi ruler while ignoring evidence of his role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The crown prince had faced some isolation at last year’s G20 summit in Buenos Aires after being implicated in the grisly murder of the Washington Post columnist and legal resident of the U.S., who disappeared after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October.

But Trump has largely ignored the evidence, including a conclusion by the Central Intelligence Agency, that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing.

Appearing before their breakfast at the Imperial Hotel in Osaka, Trump and Prince Mohammed ignored at least two questions about Khashoggi’s death.

“Mr. President, will you discuss Jamal Khashoggi?”

Trump instead answered a question about his plans to visit the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Un.

“Mr. President, will [you] address the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, sir, with the crown prince?”

Trump instead answered a question about his plans to discuss the technology company Huawei with President Xi Jinping of China, saying it would be part of their talks on trade.

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In his remarks, Trump proclaimed his admiration for the crown prince, declaring that it was an honor to be in his company.

“It's an honor to be with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, a friend of mine, a man who has really done things in the last five years in terms of opening up Saudi Arabia,” Trump said. “And I think especially what you've done for women. I’m seeing what's happening; it's like a revolution in a very positive way.”

Trump continued, “I want to just thank you on behalf of a lot of people, and I want to congratulate you. You've done, really, a spectacular job.”

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In an interview with the Financial Times before the G-20 summit, Russian strongman Vladimir Putin elucidated his oft-stated belief that Western-style liberalism has failed, leaving Putin-style authoritarianism as the only alternative. “The liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done. The migrants can kill, plunder, and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants must be protected,” Putin said. “The liberal idea has become obsolete.”

During a press conference at the G-20, a reporter asked President Trump about Putin’s comments that western-style liberalism is obsolete. Trump had absolutely no idea what the entire debate referred to:

Well, he may feel that way. He says what’s going on. I guess you look at what’s happening in Los Angeles, where it’s so sad to look, and what’s happening in San Francisco, and a couple other cities which are run by an extraordinary group of liberal people, I don’t know what they’re thinking but he does see things that are happening in the United States that would probably preclude him from saying how wonderful it is. At the same time, he congratulated me as every other leader of every other country did for what we’ve done economically … [briefly touts economy]


I don’t know what they’re thinking because when you look at Los Angeles, when you look at San Francisco, when you look at some of the other cities, and not a lot, not a lot, but you don’t want it to spread, and at a certain point, maybe, the federal government has to get involved. We can’t continue to let that happen to our cities.