Donald Trump (left) and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia remains open to a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President-elect Donald Trump, but that any concrete steps to set up such talks could be made only once Trump is sworn into office on January 20.
Responding to comments made on Thursday by Trump, who said that Putin wants to meet him to discuss the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin's spokesperson reaffirmed Russia's long-standing official position that Moscow is ready to talk.
"We need a mutual desire and political willingness to engage in a dialogue," Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesperson, told reporters. "We see that Mr. Trump also declares his readiness to solve issues via dialogue. "We welcome that."
Peskov added that the Kremlin's understanding is that there is a "mutual readiness for a meeting," but, he said, "it looks like things will start to move after Trump enters the Oval Office."
Peskov did not confirm that Putin had requested a meeting with Trump or that one was being set up, as Trump said Thursday night.
While asserting its territorial claim over its five regions in Ukraine, Russia has been insisting that it would prefer diplomacy over war.
Ukraine and some of its Western allies have questioned Russia's seriousness in offering to negotiate, and said that Russia's conditions actually represent a demand for Ukrainian capitulation.
After being largely isolated from the West for almost three years since the invasion of Ukraine, a meeting with the American president would represent a chance for Putin to negotiate with a friendlier American administration.
Trump has repeatedly said that he could resolve the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours after entering office, without saying how, but this week suggested that it could take up to six months.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Trump said that he was sympathetic with the Russian position that Ukraine should never join NATO, one of the main conditions put forward by Russia to end the war.
Trump's victory in November produced a wave of cautious optimism that the war could end soon, even if in an unstable ceasefire. But analysts have said that the process will be hard and tedious, and many in Ukraine and elsewhere fear that Trump might want to push through a deal at the expense of its capitulation.
In Russia, Giorgy Bovt, a political analyst, said that if a meeting between Trump and Putin happens too early, when "the conditions for peace have not yet matured," it could "lead to greater escalation."
"Both warring parties are still betting on continuing military action," Bovt wrote in a post on Telegram, a popular messaging app. "They do not consider their forces exhausted."
Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote on social media that "the higher the expectations" from the meeting, "the riskier the game, most of all for Trump."