Putin receives Kissinger in Kremlin
Christian Lowe, Alexander Winning, Reuters, Jun 29 2017
Pres Putin received Henry Kissinger in the Kremlin on Thursday, the Kremlin said in a statement. It did not elaborate on what the two men discussed, saying only that Kissinger was in Russia for the Primakov Readings, an annual forum of experts, diplomats and politicians. Kissinger met Pres Trump last month, and Putin and Trump are expected to meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany next week, in what would be their first face-to-face meeting since Trump became president. Russian officials say they are frustrated that the Trump administration has not been able to engage effectively with Russia on important issues. They say the issue is not Trump himself, but the stand-off inside the Pindosi political system which means the president is liable to be attacked by domestic opponents if he makes any overtures towards Russia. The officials say the amount of substantial contact Moscow has with the Pindosi administration is minimal. Illustrating the sensitivities around high-level contacts, the Kremlin acknowledged on Thursday that no formal bilateral meeting between Trump and Putin was planned for the G20, though the two men were likely to cross paths. Moscow is frustrated, according to the Russian officials, because it believes dialogue with Pindostan is crucial to resolving the conflict in Syria and concluding a peace deal which would allow Russia to end its military engagement there. Between 1968 and 1974, Kissinger, as national security adviser to Pres Nixon, established a private channel of communication with Anatoly Dobrynin, the Soviet ambassador to Washington, which historians credit with helping ease Cold War tensions.
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