“I will have a very good conversation with him. What I say to him is none of your business.”

— President Trump, quoted by Politico, on what he and Russian President Vladimir Putin say to each other behind closed doors.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump plan to meet for at least an hour on the sidelines of this week’s Group of 20 summit in Japan, a Kremlin official said Wednesday, confirming plans for the first meeting between the leaders in almost a year,” the Washington Post reports.

CNN: “The US and Russian warships came somewhere between 50 feet and 165 feet of each other, according to the two opposing reports, with both sides alleging their ships were forced to perform emergency maneuvers to avoid a collision.”

“This latest incident comes just days after the US Navy accused Russia of intercepting a US aircraft and amid tensions with Moscow on a wide range of geopolitical issues. Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Russian Vladimir Putin in the resort town of Sochi, where he warned Russia about interfering in US elections, taking a tougher public line than President Donald Trump on the issue.”

“Russia has likely been secretly carrying out very low-yield nuclear tests to upgrade its nuclear arsenal, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment, challenging Moscow’s claims that it is faithfully adhering to an international treaty banning nuclear tests,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The assessment marks the first time the U.S. has said the Kremlin has failed to strictly observe its commitments under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.”

“Russians who were linked to interference in the 2016 U.S. election discussed ambitious plans to stoke unrest and even violence inside the U.S. as recently as 2018,” according to documents reviewed by NBC News.

“The documents — communications between associates of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Kremlin-linked oligarch indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for previous influence operations against the U.S. — laid out a new plot to manipulate and radicalize African-Americans. The plans show that Prigozhin’s circle has sought to exploit racial tensions well beyond Russia’s social media and misinformation efforts tied to the 2016 election.”

Gerald Seib: “With relatively little investment, the Russian leader is expanding his toehold in the Western Hemisphere and potentially getting access to giant oil and uranium supplies by backing a dictator in Venezuela.”

“With relatively little investment, he has expanded his base of operations in the Middle East by propping up a dictator in Syria and by trying to send some sophisticated Russian military equipment into Turkey. (For the latter effort, he’d actually turn a profit.)”

“And with relatively little investment, and little notice from a distracted international community, he has kept up a low-level war against those fighting a Russian takeover in eastern Ukraine, holding on to a bargaining chip he might find useful someday.”

“He does all this while overseeing an economy roughly the size of South Korea’s, which produces little or nothing the world wants to buy, outside of oil and military gear.”

President Trump “initiated a lengthy call with his Russian counterpart on Friday, in which Vladimir Putin urged sanctions relief for North Korea and warned against interference in Venezuela,” Bloomberg reports.

“The leaders’ call lasted for 1.5 hours.”

“Trump told reporters at the White House that Putin had assured him Moscow isn’t seeking to ‘get involved’ in the crisis in Venezuela, despite assertions by the U.S. president’s top national security advisers that the Kremlin is offering critical support to Nicolas Maduro’s regime… The conversation, which Trump went on to describe as ‘very positive,’ appeared to be another example of Trump taking Putin’s claims at face value despite contrary evidence from his own government.”

CBS News: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) says Trump gets “totally dazzled” and “googly eyed” when talking to Putin.

“Meddling is what my — I do when I call my daughter on a Saturday night. This was actually an invasion of our democracy, OK? This isn’t asking your kid, oh, what are you doing tonight? This is an invasion of our democracy.”

— Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), quoted by Politico, arguing that President Trump “has no incentive to make sure that American elections are secure and uncompromised.”

Washington Post: “The special counsel investigation was often cast as a clash between President Trump and Robert Mueller. But there was always a third player, for whom victory seemed assured no matter the outcome.”

“Russian President Vladi­mir Putin set this sequence of events in motion with a Kremlin campaign to destabilize American democracy. That operation and its aftermath inflamed partisan tensions in the United States, eroded public confidence in core institutions and triggered a two-year investigation that consumed the nation’s attention and much of the Trump presidency.”

“The Kremlin said on Monday that it was ready to improve ties with the United States but that it was up to Washington to make the first move, after the conclusion of a U.S. investigation into collusion between Donald Trump and Russia in the 2016 election,” Reuters reports.

Politico: “Barr’s summary makes clear that there was no coordinated high-level conspiracy between Russia and Trump to tilt the 2016 presidential election in his favor…”

“But there are also many aspects of Trump’s behavior toward Russia, both as a candidate and as president, that remain baffling. His obsession with that Kremlin bogeyman, NATO. His failure to disclose his pursuit of a hotel project in Moscow even as he ran for the White House, and his subsequent lying about it. His real estate business’ many years of heavy reliance on Russian money.”

“Strangest of all is Trump’s relationship with Putin, whom he never criticizes directly. Flash back to that fawning July 2018 news conference in Helsinki, at which Trump stood next to his Russian counterpart and said, ‘I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.’ It remains one of the more bizarre performances by an American president abroad.”

“The White House on Thursday rejected congressional Democrats’ demands for documents relating to President Donald Trump’s private discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin — escalating tensions between the Trump administration and Congress over a crucial piece of Democrats’ oversight ambitions,” Politico reports.

“The chief of Russia’s armed forces endorsed on Saturday the kind of tactics used by his country to intervene abroad, repeating a philosophy of so-called hybrid war that has earned him notoriety in the West, especially among American officials who have accused Russia of election meddling in 2016,” the New York Times reports.

“The speech outlined what some Western analysts consider the signature strategy of Russia under President Vladimir Putin — and what other experts call a simple recognition of modern war and politics.”