Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted for the first time to yesterday's first round of negotiations with the Americans on Ukraine.
He positively assessed the outcome of the negotiations between the Russian and American delegations in Riyadh, emphasizing that the meeting is the first step in renewing cooperation in various areas, including the Middle East, energy, and space exploration, Index reports.
According to him, the goal of the talks was to restore trust between the two countries, without which, he claims, it is not possible to resolve any key issue, including the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin stressed that Russia has never ruled out the possibility of negotiations on Ukraine and has not severed contacts with either the Europeans or Kiev.
According to him, European and Ukrainian authorities have cut off or banned these contacts.
He added that Moscow does not interfere in the internal affairs of the US and Europe, unlike European leaders who, according to him, openly influenced the American elections and used an offensive tone towards political actors in the US.
Commenting on the possibility of meeting with Donald Trump, Putin said that the will to hold the meeting is mutual, but that due to the state of relations between the two countries, such a meeting is more demanding than a simple conversation "over a cup of coffee."
He also noted that Trump is now starting to get "objective information" about the situation.
Concluding relations between Moscow and Washington, Putin said that they had mutually agreed on the need to return the work of diplomatic missions to a normal regime, which can be considered one of the first concrete steps towards reducing tensions.
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