US Secretary of State goes to Russia for the first time in two years

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday will hold a series of meetings in Russian Sochi, primarily with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other representatives of Russia's leadership.

This is stated in the official statement of the US State Department.

“US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Sochi on May 11 and will meet with Russian President Putin, Foreign Minister Lavrov and other Russian officials on May 12 to discuss a full range of bilateral and regional issues, including Iran, Syria and Ukraine,” the report notes. document.

As the State Department emphasized, this visit is “part of ongoing US efforts to maintain direct contacts with senior Russian officials and communicate clear US views.”

After that, Kerry will travel to Antalya (Turkey) to consult with allies and partners at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers scheduled for 13 May.

The Russian side is ready for discussion in Sochi on May 12 with the State Secretary US whole complex issues, but the topic of sanctions on the agenda does not appear. This was announced on Monday TASS Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Ryabkov.

“We are ready to talk about the entire range of issues, but we do not intend to touch upon the topic of sanctions,” the deputy minister emphasized. “This issue was not initiated by us; we are not the instigators and instigators of certain aggravations here.”

“If the Secretary of State deems it necessary to state something on this topic, we will listen, but strictly speaking there is no such topic on the agenda,” he added.

According to Ryabkov, during the visit of John Kerry, international topics and problematic moments of Russian-American relations will be discussed.

“The issues that will be discussed concern the situation in the world in a broad sense and Russian-American relations with all their problematic elements,” Ryabkov noted.

“There will be time to systematically and deeply go through point by point the entire complex and difficult agenda, which is not improving,” the diplomat added.

He recalled that the Secretary of State came to Russia in May 2013.

About the Ukrainian crisis

Ryabkov also said that the Ukrainian topic will be one of the central issues at the talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the US Secretary of State.

Answering the question whether it is possible to talk about the possible accession of the United States to the Normandy format, Ryabkov said: “I see no reason to talk about this at all now, because the Minsk agreements exist, no one has canceled them, four working groups and subgroups have been launched.” “If the United States wants to help implement the Minsk agreements, they need to work more actively with Kiev directly,” the deputy minister emphasized.