"President Trump looks forward to having President Putin to Washington after the first of the year, and he is open to visiting Moscow upon receiving a formal invitation," Sanders said.
The White House said that Trump planned to invite Putin for a visit this fall, but on Wednesday, National Security Adviser John Bolton said the visit would be postponed until after January 1, 2019, due to the ongoing Russia investigation into allegations of meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. Russia has repeatedly denied the allegations characterizing them as groundless.
READ MORE: Trump’s Russian Meddling Reversal Suggests US Becoming 'Authoritarian'
Earlier in the day, during the press conference held soon after the BRICS summit, Vladimir Putin revealed that he had invited the president of the US Donald Trump to Moscow, however, he also admitted that if the US side could provide a proper working environment, he would himself visit Washington for negotiations.
The US president's behavior during the meeting has made Western media furious and left them criticising Trump, who questioned the assumed Russian meddling during the 2016 US presidential elections and he doubted that it had actually occurred. However, later, in an interview with CBS News, he backtracked from his comments.