Russia preparing for meeting with US security advisor

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW

Russia is preparing for a meeting of Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev with U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, Moscow said on Friday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov was very cautious in announcing the meeting at a press conference in Moscow.

He said the agreement for the meeting was "perhaps the only agreement reached at the Helsinki summit" last week between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.

"We leave to the American side, in this case, the interpretation of which agreements were reached and which were not reached,” he said.

“But, for our part, we confirm that we are working on the prospect of such a meeting and hope that it can take place in the near future.”

He added that he expected it to take place before summer ends.

He added that the possibility of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visiting Russia is not being discussed, but that Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov could meet on the sidelines of an international meeting.

Earlier today, Putin said he had invited Trump to come to Moscow, and the White House said Trump "looks forward to having" Putin in Washington some time in 2019.

The first summit between Putin and Trump took place this month in Helsinki. It was met by a widespread criticism in the U.S.