Russian parliament official says that Putin and Trump could meet soon

Leonid Slutsky, Chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian Parliament, has stated that a meeting between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump could take place in the near future.

As reported by Interfax, Slutsky suggested that the meeting could take place in February or March.

"February or March – we won’t speculate and will let the leaders prepare thoroughly, but it will happen soon," Slutsky told journalists on 6 February when asked about the possibility of a Putin-Trump meeting.

He claimed that a meeting between Putin and Trump is "100% certain".

Slutsky noted that such a meeting "requires serious preparation, which is currently at an advanced stage".

"So in the near future, I believe we will have concrete information about the meeting, and I hope it will bring constructive results for the most pressing issues in global politics today.

That includes Ukraine, the Middle East, and overall international relations in the near future. I am confident this will be a landmark meeting that won’t be in vain."

On Wednesday, 5 February, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov publicly acknowledged contacts between the Kremlin and Trump’s administration for the first time.

This came after Trump said that the United States is engaged in "very constructive talks on Ukraine" and stressed that he will "do everything" to stop the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed hope for a meeting with the US president in the near future. He said that it should precede the determination of the format of conversations with Russia.