Moscow--President Vladimir Putin is expected to host US Secretary of State John Kerry for talks in Sochi on Tuesday, in the first visit to Russia by the US top diplomat since the start of the crisis in Ukraine.
Ties between Moscow and Washington collapsed after Russia seized Crimea and buttressed separatists in eastern Ukraine, but after a year of raging tensions signs are emerging that both Russia and the West may be ready for a detente.
Putin has refused to budge on Ukraine but has signalled his readiness to mend ties with Washington and Brussels as Russia chafes under the burden of biting Western sanctions.
The US State Department said on Monday that Kerry would meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and Putin, who is spending the week at his summer residence in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi.
"This trip is part of our ongoing effort to maintain direct lines of communication with senior Russian officials and to ensure US views are clearly conveyed," said spokeswoman Marie Harf.
It will be Kerry's first visit to Russia in two years.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to immediately confirm Putin's meeting with Kerry, but the foreign ministry confirmed the American's meeting with Lavrov.
"We expect that Secretary of State Kerry's visit to Russia will serve the normalisation of bilateral ties on which global stability depends to a large extent," the ministry said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the two ministers would discuss the implementation of the shaky ceasefire deal that took effect in eastern Ukraine in February as well as conflicts in the Middle East.
They were not expected to discuss US sanctions on Russia, he said.
Kerry's high-stakes visit comes as Russia appears to have put the worst of the fallout from the Ukraine crisis behind it, with the rouble rebounding somewhat and Putin still immensely popular at home.
AFP
