KREMLIN SAYS ‘TOO EARLY’ TO SPEAK OF THAW IN RUSSIA-US TIES

MOSCOW (TIP): The Kremlin said on Thursday it was too early to speak of a thaw in ties with Washington, a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met US President Donald Trump.

“It’s too early to draw this conclusion,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. But he added: “Of course the fact that a dialogue is taking place is very positive.”

Peskov said both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to be at the G20 summit in Germany in July, which “could serve as a good occasion” for them to meet. Wednesday’s meeting came as Trump was embroiled in a political firestorm over the investigations into allegations his US presidential election campaign had colluded with Russia. Lavrov met both Trump and US counterpart Rex Tillerson in Washington, saying the US president was seeking “mutually beneficial” and “pragmatic” relations with Moscow.

“The goal of both president Trump and president Putin is to have concrete results which will be tangible and which will allow (us) to alleviate problems, including on the international agenda,” he told reporters.

Tillerson also travelled to Moscow last month for talks with Lavrov. Tillerson, who also had a closed-door meeting with Putin during his visit, deplored the “low level of trust” between the two powers, whose relations have sunk to a post-Cold War low over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

“The world’s two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship,” the US secretary of state said. In a shock move on Tuesday, Trump sacked FBI chief James Comey, the man overseeing federal investigations into suspected Kremlin interference in the 2016 US vote. (AFP)