Moments before President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin took the stage, a man was forcibly removed from the room. Watch how it unfolded below.
Fallout after Trump-Putin meeting
By Meg Wagner, Veronica Rocha, Brian Ries and Sheena McKenzie, CNN
Updated 9:56 p.m. ET, July 17, 2018
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Man forcibly removed from news conference
Why Putin’s frequently late to meetings
From CNN's Nathan Hodge
Russian President Vladimir Putin, it seems, knows how to play the waiting game.
The Kremlin leader arrived in Helsinki at around 1:00 pm local time, just around the time his summit with President Donald Trump was originally scheduled to start. Observers took note: Putin has a habit of keeping other dignitaries waiting.
In 2016, he arrived in Japan over two hours behind schedule for talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The year before, Pope Francis waited patiently for more than an hour at the Vatican for his Russian guest to arrive. And on more than one occasion, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had to cool his heels while waiting for meeting with Putin to start.
But the record for waiting patiently for Putin may belong to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In 2014, amid the crisis over the Crimea annexation, Putin kept Merkel waiting in Milan for a meeting four hours later than originally scheduled.
Negotiating tactic? In fairness, Putin’s late start at the historic Helsinki summit may have one possible explanation: Sunday was the World Cup final in Moscow, marking the end of a month of celebrations around the tournament.
Putin had always been scheduled to arrive first in Helsinki, so Trump delayed his departure to the Presidential Palace to accommodate Putin's tardiness. All told, the summit got started only an hour behind schedule.
Trump and Putin are now meeting with a larger group. Here's who's at the table.
President Trump and President Putin are now participating in what's known as an expanded bilateral meeting and working lunch.
The meeting will be in the Hall of Mirrors Room at the Finnish presidential palace, which is just off the Gothic Hall where the two men just met one-on-one.
The delegations are seated at a long table. In the screenshot above, the US is on the left; the Russians on the right.
With Trump are Fiona Hill, who is on the National Security Council; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; translator Marina Gross, who has previously translated for the State Department and other government entities; US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman; and national security adviser John Bolton. Chief of Staff John Kelly is seated at the front end of the table (he's partially out of frame in the photo above).
Trump: Private Putin meeting was "a very good start"
President Trump just responded to a shouted question asking how was the meeting.
Trump said it was a “very good start."
It's Helsinki's hottest day in years
From CNN's Brandon Miller
President Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin are meeting on one very hot Helsinki day.
The city is currently experiencing its worst heat in several years, and potentially the hottest day since 2010. It is currently 30 degrees Celsius (That's 86 degrees Fahrenheit).
How rare is that? Helsinki averages around one 30°C day every decade, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
The average high in Helsinki for mid-July is about 20 degrees Celsius, or about 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
Is it a meeting? Or a summit? Or a meeting-summit?
A war of words erupted in the run-up to today's highly anticipated conclave between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
First, it was a "meeting": President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the possibility of meeting at the White House during a phone call last month, the White House said in April.
"As the President himself confirmed on March 20, hours after his last call with President Putin, the two had discussed a bilateral meeting in the 'not-too-distant future' at a number of potential venues, including the White House," White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement.
Trump-Putin meeting lasting more than 90 minutes
From CNN's Jeremy Diamond
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin's one-on-one meeting — with interpreters — is running long.
Reporters were ushered out of the room where the two men were meeting at 2:16 p.m. local time, presumably leaving Trump and Putin alone for their 90 minutes of scheduled solo time. As of this writing, the meeting is still ongoing.
Trump and Putin's bilateral meeting at the G20 summit last year also ran long, with first lady Melania Trump reportedly poking her head in the meeting in an attempt to get Trump back on schedule.
Trump and Putin and their host pose for a photo
The office of Finland's President Sauli Niinistö tweeted this photo of the Finnish leader posing with Presidents Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Finland has a long history of hosting diplomatic meetings: The country's historical neutrality and its proximity to Russia made it a choice venue for Cold War era summits.
This is the woman who's interpreting for Trump today
From CNN's Kaitlan Collins
President Trump has his own interpreter in the room for the during his meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin, a White House official confirms to CNN.
The interpreter is Marina Gross, who has previously translated for the State Department and other government entities. She accompanied first lady Laura Bush to Sochi, Russia, in 2008.
