WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry departed Monday for Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin, on his first visit since relations between Washington and Moscow plummeted to post-Cold War lows amid disagreements over Ukraine and Syria.
The State Department said Kerry would meet Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday in Sochi. But the Kremlin said Putin’s attendance had yet to be confirmed and the Russian Foreign Ministry previewed the talks by blaming Washington for the breakdown in relations. Ukraine’s crisis, it said, “was largely provoked by the United States itself.” Both sides stressed the importance of trying to work through the rancor that buried President Barack Obama’s first-term effort to “reset” ties with Moscow.
The short trip will be Kerry’s second to Russia since taking office. He visited Moscow in May 2013, meeting with Putin and Lavrov before the Ukraine crisis erupted and Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.
