MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. The Kremlin has doubts that Washington will embrace Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s initiative on holding talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden in Minsk, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

"This is a new initiative by the Belarusian president. You probably heard the White House stating that the US president is not planning any other stops in addition to Poland. So it is unlikely that Washington will respond to this initiative," he said commenting on this idea.

Replying to a question as to whether Russia was ready for such a meeting, the Kremlin official said: "President Putin is always ready for dialogue with the Belarusian president who will be in Moscow today."

Earlier, Lukashenko invited Biden to Minsk expressing readiness to organize his meeting with Putin there. The US president will visit Poland from February 20 through 22, he will meet with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda and the leaders of the Bucharest Nine (Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Estonia).