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Article snippet: HAMBURG, Germany — President Trump questioned President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday about Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election, using their epic first face-to-face meeting to directly raise what has become a vexing political issue for the White House. Mr. Putin denied any meddling, and aides for each offered differing versions of the exchange. But both sides said the two leaders quickly turned to a discussion of how they could work together, including on combating cyberattacks and de-escalating the war in Syria. The meeting, which lasted for more than two hours on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit meeting, was so all-consuming that even Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, failed in her attempt to pry the two leaders apart halfway through so Mr. Trump could keep his later appointments. Rex W. Tillerson, the secretary of state, said that Mr. Trump had confronted Mr. Putin in a “robust and lengthy” discussion and that Mr. Putin had denied involvement in any election interference. Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia, the only other official in the meeting, said Mr. Trump had accepted Mr. Putin’s denial. Both aides were trying to present their leaders as having stood their ground. The relationship between the United States and Russia right now is so fraught, so mired in distrust, disruption, power plays and cybersabotage, that the best Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump could get away with was setting up mechanisms to talk about their differences. Mr. Trump ... Link to the full article to read more