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 ease heightened 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 “normalise” relations between Moscow and the west, which have soured over new US sanctions against the Kremlin, Russia’s large military build-up on the border with Ukraine and concerns over the health of jailed Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said on Russian state television that “they are talking about June, there are even specific dates,” being considered for the meeting, adding: “Well, I will not talk about them yet, but it is June.”