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A summit between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden is likely to take place as early as June, a senior Kremlin official said on Sunday amid hopes that face-to-face talks between the two leaders will be facilitated. increased tension between Moscow and Washington.
Biden proposed to Putin earlier this month that they hold a summit in a third country in an effort to “normalize” relations between Moscow and the West, which have been exacerbated by new US sanctions against the Kremlin, Russia’s large military accumulation on the border with Ukraine, and concerns Health of imprisoned Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, told Russian state television that “there is talk of June, there are even specific dates,” which is being considered for the meeting, and added: “Well, I won’t talk about it yet, but June does.”
Although Ushakov said the summit would take place “based on many factors,” his statements are the strongest sign that the Kremlin is actively working on organizing the meeting. Other senior Russian officials have said Biden’s proposal to meet in a European country has been received “positively”.
Biden is scheduled to be in Europe in June for his first trip abroad since taking office, to attend the G7 summit in the United Kingdom from 11 to 13 June and the NATO summit in Belgium on 14 June.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.
Ushakov’s comments come after a week in which Russia has seemed to take a less confrontational stand on issues in which it has faced the West.
Last week, Moscow announced that thousands of troops would be deployed near the Ukrainian border. return to their bases and allowed civilian doctors to visit Navalny in prison, where he later finished a 24-day hunger strike. Putin also agreed to attend the Biden summit on climate change on Thursday.
The bid for the Biden summit came just two days before it announced a new round of sanctions against Moscow, as part of an intention to punish Putin for past actions such as alleged meddling in U.S. elections and cyberattacks. and offer the promise of a more future cooperative relationship.
The move came a month after Biden told an interviewer he agreed with the assessment that Putin was a “killer,” a comment that sparked outrage from the Kremlin and saw Russia remember its ambassador. of Washington.
The envoy has not yet returned, while the U.S. ambassador to Moscow also returned home for consultations last week, meaning the embassies of both countries are without their highest representatives as they have place discussions on the potential summit.
Prior to Oshakov’s statements, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said earlier this month that the Kremlin “would take a long time to analyze.” [Biden’s] proposal “.
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