Putin advocates normalising ties in New Year greetings to Trump

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday invited his American counterpart Donald Trump to visit Moscow in the coming year and advocated for normalising relations between the two countries in his New Year message to the White House.

"In a Christmas and New Year greeting message to President of the United States of America Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin noted that Russia and the US were historically responsible for ensuring global security and stability and that Moscow speaks in favour of normalising bilateral relations and establishing an equal dialogue based on the mutual respect of interests," Putin's office said in a statement cited by CNN.

"The President of Russia also reaffirmed his invitation to Donald Trump to visit Moscow to take part in the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War," the statement read.

Putin's invitation and wishes come after the Kremlin on Sunday released a separate readout of a phone call between Trump and Putin in which the two discussed "matters of mutual interest" and reached an agreement to "continue bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism."

Kremlin-provided statement of the call -- initiated by Russia and the first between Putin and Trump since July -- said that "Vladimir Putin thanked Donald Trump for the information shared via the special services that helped prevent terrorist acts in Russia," but did not provide additional details about what information the US had provided.

Two Russian nationals, though, were detained on Friday based on information provided by the US, according to a statement issued by the Federal Security Service of Russia. They had intended to carry out terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg on the New Year's Eve, the Federal Security Service said.

The White House, however so far, has not released its own readout of the call and has not provided additional comment on the conversation between the leaders.

In November, Trump said that he was considering Putin's invitation to attend the Victory Day Parade -- widely seen as a celebration of Russian military power on the anniversary of the victory of allied nations over Nazi Germany in World War II -- that takes place in early May in Moscow.

The last time an American president visited Russia was in 2013 when then-President Barack Obama took part in the G20 economic summit in St. Petersburg.