WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said he expects to meet soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin, after calling on Tuesday to congratulate him on his re-election.
"We had a very good call," Trump said, adding that he expects to meet Putin "in the not too distant future to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control."
Trump's call with Putin came less than a week after the U.S. issued financial sanctions against a St. Petersburg-based "troll farm" and Russian intelligence services that are believed to have meddled in the 2016 election on the president's behalf.
Trump didn't bring up the sanctions or Russia's election interference in the call, nor did he mention a nerve-gas attack on a former Russia spy in Salisbury, England, that the U.K. has blamed on the Russian government, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
Later Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that Trump had defied the advice of his aides not to congratulate Putin on his election victory.
National security advisers had included a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating "DO NOT CONGRATULATE," according to people with knowledge of the call.
Trump also chose not to heed talking points from aides instructing him to condemn Putin about the U.K. attack, which U.S. government officials also have blamed on Russia, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized Trump's outreach to the Russian leader.
"An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections," McCain said in a statement Tuesday. "And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country's future."
[PRESIDENT TRUMP: Timeline, appointments, executive orders + guide to actions in first year]
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump "can call whomever he chooses" but noted that calling Putin "wouldn't have been high on my list."
At the State Department, spokesman Heather Nauert said it was "no surprise" that Putin was re-elected, commenting that some people were paid to turn out to vote and opposition leaders were intimidated or jailed.
Her comments were tougher on Russia than those coming from the White House.
Sanders said Trump didn't criticize the conduct of Russia's election in the call.
"We don't get to dictate how other countries operate," she told reporters in a briefing.
Earlier this month, Trump issued a rare rebuke of Putin after the Russian leader announced new, supposedly "invincible" nuclear weapons during an annual address to the nation.
Putin, however, has accused the U.S. of triggering a new arms race by continuing work on a missile defense system.
Trump said that after his election, Putin "made a statement that being in an arms race is not a great thing. And we are spending $700 billion this year on our military and a lot of it is that we are going to remain stronger than any other nation in the world by far."
"We will never allow anybody to have anything even close to what we have," Trump said.
It's not yet clear when the two leaders would meet, or where.
Information for this article was contributed by Henry Meyer, Ilya Arkhipov and Justin Sink of Bloomberg News; and by Carol D. Leonnig, David Nakamura and Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post.
A Section on 03/21/2018