Kerry in Moscow for talks on Syria, Ukraine; to meet Putin

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters yesterday: “Russian President Vladimir Putin will not host his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the bilateral summit in St Petersburg on Tuesday”.

A USA diplomat in Paris, speaking anonymously, said a meeting in Geneva on Friday between Russian and American diplomats on Syria was aimed mainly at clearing up Russian “grievances” ahead of today’s Moscow meeting.

Ahead of the talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement criticising US policy on Syria, complaining that Washington was not ready to fully cooperate in the struggle against Islamic State militants and needed to rethink its policy of “dividing terrorists into good and bad ones”.

It is expected that the main topic of the negotiations will be the Syrian issue. Russian Federation has consistently said Assad’s future is for the Syrian people to decide, while the US and many of its allies insist that he go, although they have softened their stance somewhat to allow Assad to play some kind of role in the transition.

At the beginning of the meeting, Lavrov and Kerry agreed that cooperation between Moscow and Washington is necessary to solve worldwide issues of great significance and announced that they expect progress regarding a number of issues.

The trip will be Mr Kerry’s second to Russian Federation this year – he met with Mr Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in May – but his first since frosty relations over Ukraine were exacerbated by Moscow’s intervention in Syria in late September. It was unclear whether the agreement on preconditions meant the December 18 meeting was on or off.

He also said that the meeting would cover the matter of Ukraine, with its continued division between the Western-backed government in Kiev and the Russian-backed separatists in its East.

Kerry’s talks in Moscow will delve deeper into details of a planned January 1 ceasefire in Syria, as well as Monday’s comments by Russia on supporting the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has been fighting Russian- and Iranian-backed government forces.

Kerry is asking for Russia’s full implementation of a February cease-fire in exchange for sanctions relief. But the cease-fire has become increasingly strained. “Given the US influence on Kiev, it would be a positive factor”.

“I think it’s fair to say that there is work that both sides probably need to do in that regard [de-escalation], but I think it’s notable that in the weeks since that occurred, we haven’t seen any tangible escalation at this point”, Earnest said. “We are not trading Ukraine for Syria”.