MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/. No signs of a possible breakthrough are seen in the Russian-US relations, Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin explained Moscow’s concerns to US Vice President Michael Pence during their meeting in Singapore.
"There are no breakthroughs in relations with the United States and none can be expected. In this case, we should probably wait for the next contact between the two presidents," he said in an interview with the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.
In his words, Russia and the United States are working on a meeting between the two leader in Argentina.
"As for Pence, a contact with him did take place. They briefly outlined issues that could be put on the agenda of Putin’s next meeting with Trump, key problems and key points of concern," Peskov said. "The [Russian] president laid bare all of our concerns to Pence quite concisely and quite clearly so that this concise and clear summary be conveyed to President Trump."
According to Peskov, Pence began the conversation with Putin with the topic of Russia’s alleged meddling with the US elections. "The Americans keep on repeating allegations about meddling with the elections as a mantra. As a matter of fact, Pence started the conversation with that," he said, adding that nevertheless the Russian leader and the US vice president had ultimately managed to touch upon matters of the INF Treaty, Ukraina, Syria and Iran.
The Russian president told a news conference after the East Asia summit that he had had a brief meeting with Pence on the sidelines of the forum.
According to earlier reports, the Russian and US president plan to have a meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty summit in Argentina due to be held on November 30 through December 1.