Secretary Pompeo Visits Russia 

Bloomberg informs that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo met the shores of the Black Sea and said they are committed to improving ties between their nations.

Putin’s 90-minute meeting with Pompeo in the resort city of Sochi represented an initial step toward addressing a wide range of disputes between the two nations and a search for common ground.

As Bloomberg reports, Putin and Pompeo signaled that there are overlapping areas of interest, such as addressing North Korea’s nuclear threat and finding a way forward in places such as Syria and Afghanistan.

The Guardian writes that Vladimir Putin told the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, that he hoped the conclusion of Robert Mueller’s investigation would make possible a revitalisation of US-Russian relations.

In introductory remarks on Tuesday evening in Sochi, Putin said: “You have to give [Mueller] his due: overall, he conducted an objective investigation and confirmed the absence of any trace of a conspiracy between Russia and the current administration.″

Russian officials said a possible summit between Trump and Putin at the G20 meeting next month in Osaka had been discussed. Putin would be open to a meeting, they said, but the US had not yet made a formal request.

Prepared by Marina Muradyan