Russia confirms Putin and Trump talked of joint cybersecurity unit
US president backtracks on proposal, saying he does not think it could happen, after harsh criticism from some senior Republicans
Moscow — Russia confirmed on Monday that President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin had discussed forming a joint Russian-US group on cybersecurity, an idea that provoked uproar in Washington, but said it was only a tentative proposal. Trump said on Twitter early on Sunday that the two leaders discussed forming "an impenetrable Cyber Security unit" when they met at the Hamburg Group of 20 summit. The idea was greeted with incredulity by some senior Republicans, who said Moscow could not be trusted. Trump later in the day tweeted he did not think it could happen. "The heads of state did talk about such a possibility," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters on Monday. "Nothing was promised to each other," he said. "What is positive, they stated their readiness to work in this direction." The conversation had been "about the possibility of forming such a group. Whether it will be created or not, time will show," he said. Svetlana Lukash, a Russia...
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