Moscow:
A meeting among Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden in Geneva on Wednesday is unlikely to yield concrete offers but the talks will nonetheless be helpful, a Kremlin aide stated.
The leaders will meet for the very first time considering that Biden became president as the bilateral relationship stands at the lowest point in years.
Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that the agenda – apart kind the final communiques – was confirmed in his phone contact with White House national safety adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday.
Nuclear stability, climate transform, cybersecurity and the fate of U.S. and Russian nationals who are in prison in every other’s nations would be on the agenda, the Kremlin aide stated.
“I’m not sure that any agreements will be reached. I look at this meeting with practical optimism,” Ushakov told reporters in comments cleared for publication on Tuesday.
Biden, who named former KGB operative Putin a killer in March, has cast Russia as engaging in unacceptable behaviour on a variety of fronts. He has also talked about Russia’s “dilemmas” – its post-Soviet financial collapse, what he named overreach in Syria and issues with COVID-19.
In phone contact in April, Biden proposed a summit with Putin to tackle their disputes.
Russia-U.S. ties slumped to a post-Cold War low following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine in 2014. Washington also accused Moscow of interference in the 2016 presidential elections, imposing sanctions on Russian firms and folks.
“The situation is just close to critical. Of course, something should be done in this context,” stated Ushakov, who was the Russian ambassador to the United States from 1998 to 2008.
The leaders have separately opened the door to a feasible exchange of prisoners — two former U.S. Marines held in Russia for Russians in U.S. prisons. A lawyer stated last year that Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout, was one of the prisoners Moscow desires freed.
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