Vladimir Putin
The Russian foreign Ministry announced the beginning of preparation for the meeting of the American and Russian presidents Donald trump and Vladimir Putin. This, speaking in the state Duma, said Deputy head of the Ministry Sergei Ryabkov, RIA Novosti reported.
“Understanding dates and venue of this meeting yet, but the practical preparation for its implementation started, and in this respect there is a mutual understanding with the American side,” the diplomat said.
He added that Moscow welcomes Washington’s statement about building a dialogue between the two countries.
According to Ryabkov, Russia’s relations with the US are at their lowest point since the cold war. “The pace total, precipitous degradation of relations has accelerated dramatically after the coup in Kiev three years ago. When the White house went to an open confrontation, declaring the course in a systematic containment of Russia, the American side sharply and radically limited the dialogue in many areas,” he said.
Deputy foreign Minister added that under the increasing sanctions pressure from the 2014 Washington “under various pretexts, more than 30 times introduced and expanded various restrictions” against Moscow. According to Ryabkov, today blacklisted is 172 Russian citizens and 350 different legal entities, including banks flagship.
Earlier in February, press-Secretary of Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that Putin and trump will meet at the summit of “Big twenty” in Hamburg (Germany) in July of this year. “But, as you know, it was the possibility of an earlier meeting, there are no specifics yet”, — he added.
Before that, Putin said that Ljubljana would be a wonderful place for talks with his American counterpart. To provide a platform for communication between leaders offered not only Slovenia, but also Finland and Iceland.
Since the election of President trump, he twice spoke with Putin by telephone (November 14 and January 28).