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Guardian foreign correspondent Luke Harding, who has reported extensively from Russia, analyzed the press conference, which he said is “one of the most astonishing ever.”

One of the big questions pre-summit was whether Trump would call for the extradition to the US of the 12 Russian spies indicted by Mueller. He didn’t. When the subject came up in the question and answer session Putin sought to throw the accusation back. He said he would investigate the report and even offered to “cooperate”. The Kremlin, he said, would allow Mueller’s team to visit Moscow and to question suspects. In return, however, it wanted access to Bill Browder, a US-born British financier who is a Kremlin bogeyman. Putin was well aware that Mueller’s investigators won’t be visiting Russian anytime soon. He extended a similar offer in 2006 to Scotland Yard following the radioactive murder of Alexander Litvinenko using a cup of tea. The detectives who flew to Moscow found themselves in a PR pantomime, with their efforts to get evidence thwarted by the state.