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Soon after Russian and American diplomats met in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss the normalisation of relations between the two countries, President Vladimir Putin told the Federal Security Service Board (FSB) security service gathering that initial contacts with the Trump administration gave “grounds for hope”, foreign media reported.
According to reports, Putin also insisted that Russia and the US were “ready to set up cooperation and show pragmatism” even as he claimed that “some western elites will try to undermine our dialogue.”
Putin’s remarks came as diplomats of the two countries met in Turkey for talks to resolve disputes over their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow as part of a broader effort to improve bilateral relations.
“I note that the first contacts with the new American administration inspire certain hopes. There is a reciprocal mood to work to restore intergovernmental ties and to gradually resolve the huge number of systemic and strategic problems that have built up in the world’s security architecture,” Reuters quoted Putin as saying.
Furthermore, stressing that “not all countries were in favour” of the idea of strengthened ties between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, Putin reportedly said, “We understand that not everyone is happy with the resumption of Russian-American contacts. Some Western elites are still determined to maintain instability in the world, and these forces will try to disrupt or compromise the dialogue that has begun.”
Bilateral ties between Russia and the US had been strained under the Joe Biden administration, with US authorities shutting Russian visa centre offices in Washington and New York in June 2024.
Between February and March 2022, the US declared 14 Russian diplomats, including members of Russia’s permanent mission to the United Nations, “personae non gratae.”
In retaliation, the Russian Foreign Ministry provided the US with a list of American diplomats to be expelled. In October 2023, Washington ordered two more Russian diplomats to leave the country, following Moscow’s expulsion of the first and second secretaries of the US Embassy.
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