Russia welcomes U.S. invite for possible Trump-Putin meeting

Russia has welcomed the U.S. government's invitation for President Vladimir Putin to attend a G20 summit in Florida later this year, saying it "truly" appreciates the offer, but has not yet decided whether to accept it.

The invite stoked outcry in Europe, where governments have been rearming since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he feared Russia would view it as "encouragement to ​continue ‌its aggressive policies," while the European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said it was "really very, very hard to understand this treatment" of Putin.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said the White House had invited Putin to a G20 meeting in Miami in December, where he could potentially hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump .