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Putin to hold meeting with Kerry after his talks with Lavrov in Moscow

Kerry’s last visit to Russia took place on May 12 when Putin met the US state secretary in his Sochi

MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting with US State Secretary John Kerry after Kerry holds talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

"[On Tuesday] the president will meet with [US] State Secretary Kerry and [Russian] Foreign Minister Lavrov who will inform the Russian president about the talks that will have taken place by then," Peskov said.

It is expected that talks between Lavrov and Kerry will focus on issues of bilateral relations and relevant international problems, including the situation in Syria and fight against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization banned in Russia, as well as the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.

Kerry’s last visit to Russia took place on May 12 when Putin met the US state secretary in his Sochi residence Bocharov Ruchei after Kerry’s talks with Lavrov. Kerry and Lavrov held talks for more than four hours though a 90-minute meeting was initially planned.

The Kremlin assessed contacts between the Russian president and US state secretary as first signs of understanding the importance of returning to cooperation between the two countries.

Over the last months, Putin has also met several times with US President Barack Obama at international events. The Russian and American leaders met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 28, at the G20 summit in Antalya on November 15-16 and at the Paris conference on climate on November 30. Putin and Obama discussed the situation in Syria and the settlement in Ukraine.