The Kremlin says a breakthrough is still remote in Russia-U.S. relations despite talk about a possible meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
"Let's not talk about any breakthroughs; first we should talk about a starting point getting a dialogue going. We have a long way to go before any breakthrough," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters in a daily conference call on March 22.
In a phone call on March 20, Trump congratulated Putin on his election to a new six-year term and said the two would "probably get together in the not-too-distant future."
Bilateral relations are at lows not seen since the Cold War, severely strained by issues including Russia's takeover of Crimea, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, and its alleged meddling in the 2016 election won by Trump.