President Donald Trump believes Moscow will work hard to sway November congressional elections toward Democrats and not his fellow Republicans, despite US intelligence agencies' conclusion that Russia tried to put Trump in the White House in 2016.
"I'm very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don't want Trump!" the US president wrote on Twitter.
US intelligence officials have said Russia's efforts to undermine elections are continuing and now target the November 6 congressional races.
Democrats need to pick up two seats to take control of the Senate and 23 seats to take the House of Representatives.
Wresting control of a chamber would allow them to derail or stall much of Trump's policy agenda, while ushering in more aggressive congressional oversight and investigation of Trump's administration.
Trump's appearance at a July 16 summit with Putin in Helsinki last week drew a fierce backlash in the United States after he shied away from blaming the Russian leader for the election interference.
Critics accused Trump of siding with Russia over his own country by failing to so.The Kremlin, meanwhile, was reticent on Tuesday about whether it would accept an invitation from Trump to hold a summit with Putin in Washington later this year, saying only that the two men had other chances to meet.
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the beginning of their Helsinki meeting. Source: AAP
The Kremlin's failure to swiftly accept Trump's invitation for a Washington summit has been noticeable. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said that though Washington and Moscow agreed there was a need for another Putin-Trump meeting, Russia had not yet begun any practical preparations for a new meeting.
"There are other options (to meet) which our leaders can look at," Ushakov told reporters, citing a meeting of G20 leaders in Argentina which starts at the end of November.
"Maybe there will be other international events which Trump and Putin will take part in."
Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday that Putin would not be invited to address Congress should he accept Trump's invitation, calling it a privilege reserved for allies.