Kremlin: Putin-Trump ‘secret’ meeting is absurd

US media reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin held an ‘undisclosed’ meeting with US counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of G20 summit in the German city of Hamburg raise eyebrows and cause confusion, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a televised interview with Channel One.

"The use of such definitions as a ‘secret’ or ‘undisclosed’ meeting raises eyebrows and causes confusion. There was a bilateral meeting officially negotiated through diplomatic channels and later on the sidelines of the visit they repeatedly exchanged views and phrases. There were neither secret nor undisclosed meetings. It is absurd to claim this," TASS cited Peskov as saying.

Putin’s press secretary added that the reports in US media manifest that the US political establishment has an unhealthy attitude towards Russia, characterized by Trump as "Russian fever."

Citing Putin, Peskov said that release of this news by the mass media could be branded as ‘schizophrenia.’ "To present this as a meeting that could have been withheld from anyone is a sign of that schizophrenia," Peskov said.