Kerry calls for common ground with Russia on Syria, Ukraine

He is due to have meetings with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

US Secretary of State John Kerry flew in to Moscow today to meet Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and urge him to keep the fledgling Syrian peace process on track.

Russian Federation has been carrying out air strikes it says target Islamic State (IS) positions in Syria, but the U.S. accuses Russian Federation of bombing moderate rebels to shore up its ally President Assad.

Kerry called it “an important day for us to try to make further progress on a number of these issues”.

Ahead of the talks, the Russian foreign ministry attacked U.S. policy, accusing Washington of “dividing terrorists into good and bad ones”.

Lavrov and Kerry will discuss the situation in Syria in the context of joint work in the International Syria Support Group, developments in Ukraine and bilateral relations.

It is expected that the main topic of the negotiations will be the Syrian issue.

Washington’s attempts to present high-profile talks between Lavrov and Kerry as containment of Russian Federation were met with a negative reaction in Moscow. Russian Federation has consistently said Assad’s future is for the Syrian people to decide, while the USA and many of its allies insist that he go, although they have softened their stance somewhat to allow Assad to play a temporary but as-yet undefined role in the transition.

While Kerry said there were still “kinks” that needed to be worked out on the plan to unite the opposition groups, the Kremlin rejected the outcome of the Riyadh meeting, saying it had no right to speak on behalf of the entire Syrian opposition.

Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters in Western Syria, however, denied that they were receiving any such support, which perhaps is not surprising as some of the FSA factions in the west are allied with al-Qaeda and fighting against the Assad government. The countries, he said, have “widely divergent perceptions of the conflict in Ukraine”.

After his lengthy meeting with Lavrov, Kerry took time out for a brief stroll through Moscow’s Stary Arbat pedestrian shopping street, stopping at stores including a Dunkin’ Donuts under a light snow and exchanging greetings with Russians. President Barack Obama has seen Putin briefly twice since then at summits in Turkey and France.

“Russia and the United States agree that this is a threat to everybody, to every country”, he said.

Regarding Ukraine, Kerry is asking for Russia’s full implementation of a February cease-fire in exchange for sanctions relief.