A lot of work still needs to be done ahead of the meeting in Budapest, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said “serious preparations” are required for the planned summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in Hungary, and that no date has yet been set.
The Kremlin and the White House confirmed that the talks would take place in the Hungarian capital after Putin and Trump spoke by phone last Thursday.
Speaking on Tuesday, Peskov stressed that “serious preparations are needed” ahead of the summit.
“You’ve heard statements from the American side and from our own that this may take time. So, no definite timeframe has been established,” he clarified.
On Monday, CNN, citing an anonymous White House official, claimed that a meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which is expected to be a prelude to the top-level talks in Hungary, had “been put on hold for the time being” and “was no longer taking place this week.” According to the publication, Rubio “is not likely to recommend the Putin-Trump meeting move forward next week” due to “divergent expectations” over the Ukraine conflict resolution.
The two top diplomats held a phone conversation on Monday, with the Russian Foreign Ministry characterizing it as “constructive.”
Reuters, citing anonymous sources, earlier reported that Lavrov and Rubio could meet as early as Thursday. Financial Times quoted an unnamed German official as suggesting that the talks could take place on October 30.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov insisted that extensive preparations were still underway for what he termed a “significant event.”
The official dismissed media reports about the supposed postponement of the summit as “infodumps” intended to disrupt diplomatic progress, and pointed the finger at the EU.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova similarly refused to give any credence to media speculation about the potential date of Lavrov-Rubio talks.
