Star-Spangled Banner Comes Down in St. Petersburg - Embassy Staff Looks on in Tears

This is 60 Minutes, reporting live about the most important issues.

- It turns out that Donald Trump has invited Vladimir Putin to visit the US. This was reported today by the Russian President's assistant, Yuri Ushakov. This is about that one phone conversation if you recall, when Trump was instructed by the Administration not to congratulate Putin but he did anyway. Turns out, he also invited him over for a visit. According to Ushakov, Donald Trump suggested a bilateral meeting in Washington and in Kremlin, let's just hope the US President lives up to his word.

 

- The White House has already confirmed that this invitation did take place. However, there's a tiny remark — this invitation was made before the mutual expulsion of diplomats. We can hardly imagine how many voices in Washington are now yelling 'Don't invite him!' They are already making these magazine covers with Trump. This is just an example, this is The New York Magazine. What will happen if the Putin-Trump summit is confirmed? The chances are slim, but still... For now, they've taken down the US flag in the St. Petersburg's US Consulate, which is definitely not a good sign. Just to be clear, we didn't take down our flag in Seattle. Americans took theirs down, in tears, recording the process, joking they wished they could stay. Let's watch.

Well, such attitude towards the flag is rather admirable. Anyway, it's no use crying over spilled milk, and we didn't start this. A key diplomacy principle is 'eye for an eye.' This is what the Head of the Russian MFA, Sergey Lavrov said today.

Sergey Lavrov, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs: "There's a principle of mutuality in diplomacy, and nobody has changed that. And, this principle will be applied consistently. So now, as we used to say when we were kids, 'he who started it must end it.' We don't want to resort to children's games, but this is exactly what our partners are doing".