Trump said Putin "was extremely strong and powerful in his denial" of election meddling.
ADVERTISEMENTUS President Donald Trump held a joint press conference on Monday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin following a historic one-on-one meeting between the two leaders, which lasted for around two hours.
Here are some of the key points:
Election meddling
Trump said he sees no reason to believe that Russia hacked the 2016 US presidential election, contrary to the findings of his own intelligence agencies.
"President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it should be," he said.
Putin also fiercely denied the claims.
“We should be guided by facts. Can you name a single fact that would definitively prove collusion? This is nonsense," he said.
World Cup
Trump congratulated Putin on the World Cup, which he said was "one of the best ever."
Putin, meanwhile, presented Trump with a footaball, which Trump said would be a gift to his son Barron.
Syrian refugees
Putin said it was crucial to help states such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to deal with refugees via military cooperation on humanitarian cargo.
"If we help them, the migratory pressure upon the European states will drop, will be decreased many fold," said Putin.
"I believe it's crucial from any point of view from humanitarian point of view from the point of view of helping people, helping the refugees and in general I agree, I concur with President Trump our military cooperate quite successfully together they do get along and I hope they will be able to do so in future."
Crimea
Putin said Trump's position on the annexation of Crimea was unchanged, while Russia's own viewpoint was "different".
"The posture of President Trump on Crimea is well known and he stands firmly by it, he continue to maintain that it was illegal to annex it. We our viewpoint is different. We held a referendum in strict compliance with the UN Charter and international legislation," he said.
Watch the press conference again in full in the player above.
To look back at how the press conference and other big stories today unfolded, scroll through the blog below: