ISTANBUL
Any summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump requires “a great deal of homework,” the Kremlin said on Sunday.
In an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin reported by state television Vesti on Telegram, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Trump cannot just “meet for the sake of meeting,” and that is why they tasked Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, respectively, with preparations.
“The process is complex. A great deal of homework truly needs to be done before the foundation for such a new summit can be laid,” Peskov said.
Earlier this week, Trump said he canceled an forthcoming summit with Putin in Budapest because "it didn’t feel right" to him, also expressing his frustration over the lack of progress in negotiations on ending the Ukraine war.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt later said the meeting "is not completely off the table," but that they want to make sure there's a “tangible positive outcome.”
Traveling to Malaysia for the 47th ASEAN summit on Saturday, Trump said he would only reschedule a meeting with Putin if he has assurances that a deal could be reached to end the over three-and-a-half-year war.
Peskov said calling the Budapest meeting as “canceled” would be inaccurate as there was no clear agreement on a date for the summit.
Putin told reporters in Moscow on Thursday that the US president "most likely" talked about postponing the meeting.
The spokesman also reaffirmed Putin’s remarks that Russia's response to long-range Ukrainian strikes on its territory will be “very strong, if not overwhelming.”
He said Moscow will also react to attempts to seize frozen Russian assets and prosecute those found to be involved, arguing that recent US sanctions affected the prospects of reviving bilateral ties.
The US Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, citing Moscow’s “lack of serious commitment” to a peace process to end the Ukraine war.