"No, I don't intend to". This is how US President Donald Trump answered when asked if he planned to travel to Moscow on May 9. Information that the new American leader would attend the celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Victory over Hitler in the Russian capital first appeared yesterday in the French publication Le Point.
The media outlet cited unnamed sources as predicting that Trump would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The Russian leader's press secretary Dmitry Peskov later said that Trump's visit to Moscow for the May 9 celebrations had not yet been planned. When asked by journalists whether the parties had agreed on the visit, Peskov replied in the negative.
At the same time, preparations for a meeting between Russian and US presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are already underway, but this will require intensive work, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
„The agreement on the meeting must be preceded by the most intensive preparatory work. In fact, it has already begun. And the negotiations in Riyadh are an important link, an important element of this work. The issues are the same. If we formulate them in general, then the point is to start moving towards normalizing relations between our countries, to find ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, among which is Ukraine,“ he said.
At the same time, Ryabkov noted that preparations for the summit are still at an early stage.