SOCHI // Russia pledged on Tuesday to work with the United States but insisted it would not bow to “coercion”, as President Vladimir Putin hosted top US diplomat John Kerry.
On the highest-level US visit to Russia since the conflict in Ukraine erupted in late 2013, Mr Putin met with Mr Kerry at his summer residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Mr Kerry and Mr Putin held four hours of talks, after the US secretary of state held a separate four-hour meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
“Russia is ready for constructive cooperation with the United States both in the bilateral sphere and the international arena where our countries have special responsibility for global security and stability,” the Russian foreign ministry said after the Lavrov talks.
“However cooperation is only possible on an honest and equal basis, without attempts to dictate and coerce.”
The Ukraine crisis is also likely to top the agenda at Nato foreign ministers talks on Wednesday in Antalya, Turkey – Mr Kerry’s next destination after Sochi.
Mr Kerry’s staff tweeted on his personal account that the talks with Mr Putin were “frank” and “productive”.
US officials said Mr Kerry wanted to press Mr Putin to finally implement a shaky ceasefire in Ukraine, and aimed to gauge whether Moscow’s support for Syrian president Bashar Al Assad may be on the wane as the rebels appear to be gaining the upper hand in the four-year civil war.
Mr Kerry was also set to discuss Yemen and Libya and brief Mr Putin on the negotiations on curtailing Iran’s nuclear programme. He was accompanied by chief US negotiator Wendy Sherman who will travel to Vienna on Wednesday for a new round of Iran talks.
Ties between Moscow and Washington were shredded when Russia seized the southern Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in early 2014 and supported separatists in eastern Ukraine.
But signs are now emerging that both Russia and the West may be ready to ease the tensions.
“We have a lot of business we could do together if there is interest,” said a US senior state department official travelling on Mr Kerry’s plane.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the visit by Mr Kerry as “extremely positive” and said the talks covered a wide range of topics including international “hot-button issues”.
Mr Putin has refused to budge on Ukraine, despite a ceasefire agreement negotiated in February in Minsk and biting Western sanctions.
“We have been very, very clear publicly that if Minsk is fully implemented ... including restoration of the sovereign border, there will be an opportunity to roll back sanctions,” the US official said.
However, he made it clear that if there were more serious violations, “the pressure will increase.”
The Russian foreign ministry warned however that sanctions were “a dead end”.
“No one will manage to force Russia [to] give up its national interests and its principled position on the issues that are key for her.”
Kiev and the pro-Russian rebels accuse each other of violating the truce and Kiev said on Tuesday that three Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in clashes in the east over the past 24 hours.
While Mr Kerry has met many times with Mr Lavrov in various European cities, he has been anxious to hold face-to-face talks with Mr Putin. They last met in Moscow in May 2013.
Mr Kerry had also planned to update Mr Putin on his recent talks in New York with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as the clock ticks down to a June 30 deadline for a final deal to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.
He was expected to raise the issue of Russia’s decision to lift a ban on selling sophisticated S-300 air defence missile systems to Tehran.
* Agence France-Presse
