Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly said Saturday that President Trump is a very different person on television than he is in person after meeting with the U.S. leader. 
 
 “Trump on television very much differs from the man in reality," Putin said at a press conference, according to a translation by Wall Street Journal reporter Anton Troianovski. 
 
 "He is very concrete, he fully perceives his interlocutor, and he analyzes and answers questions or new elements that come in the course of the discussion quickly enough," Putin added. 
 
 The Kremlin leader said if the two leaders can continue to have more conversations like they did on Friday then the diplomatic relationship between their respective countries could improve. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 "I think that if we can build our new relationship in the spirit of our first conversation, then we will have every reason to expect that we will at least in part be able to restore the level of cooperation that we need,” Putin said. 
 
 Both leaders largely praised each other following their meeting at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, with Trump calling the meeting “tremendous." 
 
 Trump and his Russian counterpart discussed a variety of issues including the Syrian civil war, terrorism, cybersecurity and the past tensions between the U.S. and Russia, officials said. 
 
 The highly anticipated meeting took place amid ongoing federal and congressional investigations into the whether Trump campaign aides colluded with Russia in the election. 
 
 Trump confronted Putin on the Kremlin's interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but critics have questioned how strongly he addressed the issue. 
 
 Top Democrats criticized Trump for the meeting, with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling it an “embarrassment to our country and our ideals.” ||||| Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed U.S. counterpart Donald Trump as radically different from the public perception of him a day after the pair first met at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. 
 
 “Trump in real life is completely different from his television persona,” Putin said Friday. 
 
 Read More: U.S. senators urge Trump to halt the Putin bromance at handing over luxury property 
 
 Speaking at a press conference a day after his meeting with Trump, Putin mirrored the U.S. president’s positivity about their conversation, state news agency RIA Novosti reported although he refrained from using Trump's superlatives and was moderate in his appraisal of the U.S. leader's characteristics.. 
 
 "He understands the person in front of him, he analyzes quite quickly and answers any questions asked of him," Putin said. 
 
 The Russian leader was reasonably optimistic about building ties with the U.S. 
 
 “It seems to me that if we are going to build relations in the same way as our meeting went yesterday that there are grounds to suppose that we will be able to restore, even partially, the level of cooperation that we need,” Putin added. 
 
 Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now 
 
 The Russian state media has been very positive about the meeting’s outcome, largely fixating on the fact Trump set aside over two hours to speak to Putin, when the pair had originally only set aside 30 minutes for the encounter. 
 
 Trump’s personal respect for Putin during the campaign prompted many questions about his refusal to criticize the president’s crackdown on dissent and social policies. The U.S. intelligence community subsequently concluded that a hack on the Democratic opposition prior to polling day was a Russian attack. 
 
 A wider scandal about alleged improper contacts between Trump and the Russian government is now the subject of Congressional and Justice Department probes. Both Russia and Trump deny any collusion took place. ||||| Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during a press conference after the G-20 summit in Hamburg, northern Germany, Saturday, July 8, 2017, where the leaders of the group of 20 met for two days. (AP... (Associated Press) 
 
 HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed his first face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, saying Saturday he thinks Trump accepted his assurances that Russia didn't meddle in the U.S. presidential election and that their conversation could be a model for improving ties between the two countries. 
 
 Speaking to reporters after the two-day Group of 20 summit in Germany ended, Putin said he and Trump had a long discussion about the allegations of Russian interference in last year's election that have dogged Trump's presidency. 
 
 The Russian leader said he reiterated his "well-known" position that "there are no grounds" for the allegations. 
 
 "He asked many questions on the subject, I tried to answer them all," Putin said. "It seems to me that he has taken note of that and agreed, but it's better to ask him about his attitude." 
 
 Putin said his answers were detailed and covered his discussions on the election meddling issue with representatives of the previous administration, including former President Barack Obama. But he would not reveal details of his exchange with Trump, saying the conversation was confidential. 
 
 "He asked questions, I replied. It seemed to me that he was satisfied with the answers," Putin said. 
 
 Trump's top envoy to the United Nations quickly disputed the Russian president's assessment of Trump's takeaway from their one-on-one meeting. 
 
 "President Trump still knows that they meddled. President Putin knows that they meddled, but he is never going to admit to it. And that's all that happened," Ambassador Nikki Haley told CNN on Saturday. 
 
 Trump has avoided firmly blaming Moscow for campaign hacking in the past, and the day before he met with Putin, he was similarly elusive. He argued variably that it could have been Russia, probably was Russia and indeed was Russia, while insisting it could have been other countries, too, and adding: "I won't be specific." 
 
 In his post-summit remarks, Putin said that a working group on cybersecurity he and Trump agreed to create during their meeting should help prevent such election controversies in the future. 
 
 "What is important is that we agreed that there should be no uncertainty in that sphere," he said. "We agreed with the U.S. president to create a working group and work jointly on how to ensure cyberspace security, how to ensure the fulfillment of international legal norms in that sphere and prevent meddling in internal affairs of Russia and the U.S. We believe that if we work that way, and I have no reason to doubt it, there will be no such allegations." 
 
 Putin also praised Trump as a strong negotiator who quickly grasps various issues. 
 
 "As for relations on personal level, I believe we have established them," Putin said. "Trump's T.V. persona differs sharply from the real man. He is a very straightforward person, grasps precisely what his interlocutor says, quickly analyzes and responds to questions or new elements of the discussion." 
 
 The Russian leader said his talks with Trump offered a model for rebuilding Russia-U.S. ties, which have plummeted to post-Cold War lows over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and other disputes. 
 
 "I think that if we develop our relations in the same way, there is every reason to believe that we would be able to at least partially restore the level of interaction that we need," Putin said. 
 
 He particularly hailed the U.S.-Russian deal on a cease-fire in southwestern Syria announced Friday as a step toward ending the hostilities. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Jim Heintz contributed to this story from Moscow.
– Vladimir Putin came away from his two-hour-plus meeting with President Trump Friday in Hamburg, Germany, with some definite impressions—notably, that the Trump we see on TV may not bear much similarity to the Trump behind the scenes, the Hill reports. "Trump on television very much differs from the man in reality," the Russian president said at a Saturday presser, per a translation offered on Twitter by Anton Troianovski of the Wall Street Journal. In what Newsweek calls a "moderate" appraisal of his US counterpart, Putin went on to say that Trump "is very concrete, he fully perceives [the person he's speaking with], and he analyzes and answers questions or new elements that come up in the course of the discussion quickly enough." Putin added he hoped that their dialogue may be a sign of good things to come. "If we can build our new relationship in the spirit of our first conversation, then we will have every reason to expect that we will at least in part be able to restore the level of cooperation that we need," he noted. What else the Russian leader thinks came out of the meeting: Trump's acceptance of Putin's assertions that Russia didn't interfere with the US election. "He asked many questions on the subject, I tried to answer them all," Putin said, per the AP. "It seemed to me that he was satisfied with the answers [and] that he [took] note of that and agreed," he added, though he said people should ask Trump himself. Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, scoffed at Putin's depiction, noting to CNN: "President Trump still knows that they meddled. President Putin knows that they meddled, but he is never going to admit to it."