Russia

Following President Trump's earlier comments that his "meeting with Putin was trememndous," the Russian President set an optimistic tone for future US relations, remarking that the Donald Trump seen on television is different from the one in real life, adding that "as for personal relations, I think that they are established."

In his 25 minute press conference, Putin carefully touched on all the talking-point 'tape-bomb gotchas' expressing hope for Syria, explaining his views on the Russia-meddling accusations, and cycbersecurity.

President Donald Trump said that his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, and which lasted for more than two hours on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, was “tremendous.”

“I had a tremendous meeting yesterday with President Putin,” Trump said while speaking with UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Saturday; the US president did not give further details regarding his meeting with Putin.

With Presidents Trump and Putin having spoken for over two hours on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Hamburg, well over the 30 minutes initially scheduled, the US press was going berserk with speculation what the two asre discussing for so long - surely CNN's anonymous sources had already disclosed that Trump was about to announce some tax-efficient handover of the US to Moscow...

... there was a surprise announcement, because as AP reported, the US and Russia did announce a cease-fire agreement in southwest Syria. 

Authored by Pepe Escobar via Counterpunch.org,

The Russia sanctions bill that passed the US Senate by 98:2 on June 15 is a bombshell; it directly demonizes the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, under the Baltic Sea, which is bound to double Gazprom’s energy capacity to supply gas to Europe.

The 9.5 billion euro pipeline is being financed by five companies; Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall; Austria’s OMV; France’s Engie; and Anglo-Dutch Shell. All these majors operate in Russia, and have, or will establish, pipeline contracts with Gazprom.

Update: The meeting seemed more cordial than many had hoped for:

#BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump speaks with President Putin pic.twitter.com/tr0hV1XQO1

— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) July 7, 2017