The administration of the President began its work in 2018, with planning negotiations with Moscow. About the Agency BuzzFeed News reported, U.S. officials, whose names are not mentioned.
In January and February 2018, the President’s administration has planned several meetings with senior officials of Russia to discuss key issues of relations between the two countries.
For example, the special representative of the us state Department on Ukraine Kurt Volker and one of the assistants of Vladimir Putin , Vladislav Surkov, will meet for talks on the Ukrainian crisis.
Later this month, US army General Curtis Scaparotti, the Supreme commander of NATO, will meet with Russian General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General staff of the Russian Armed Forces in the Azerbaijani capital Baku.
The administration, the predecessor of the trump – Obama – banned talks between senior military leader in NATO and its Russian counterpart after the annexation of Crimea by Russia. Thus despite the three-year ban and the ongoing investigation into the influence of Russia on elections in 2016, the current President’s office decided to resume the meetings of the leaders of power structures.
«It’s all part of the normal course of diplomacy, and it is not surprising that there are many issues that we need to discuss with the Russians», — said the press-Secretary of the Department of state Heather Nauert in an interview with BuzzFeed News.
Victoria Nuland, a former official of the Obama administration responsible for the implementation of the policy of isolation of Russia, said that he supports diplomatic thaw:
«These channels are particularly important at a time when relations are at the level of leaders is so unpredictable.»
As reported by BuzzFeed News, Russia has long sought to end its diplomatic isolation. In March 2017, she invited US to normalize relations in all the military, diplomatic and intelligence channels, but Washington rejected the proposal.
