MOSCOW, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Questions about future meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump should be addressed to Washington, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
"Today we have a fixed timetable of international events, in which the Russian president is expected to attend and the participation of the U.S. president is possible," Ryabkov said in an interview with the Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn magazine, excerpts of which were published on Tuesday.
It is up to Washington to decide whether new Putin-Trump talks can be arranged, he said, adding that there are always pretexts for avoiding such a meeting.
Putin and Trump held a full-fledged meeting in Helsinki in July 2018, and they talked briefly in Paris in November to mark the 100th anniversary since the end of World War I.
But Trump canceled a formal meeting with Putin in Buenos Aires in December, citing mounting tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
"The reason for not having a full-fledged meeting after Helsinki lays in the current domestic chaos in Washington, where there are forces trying to present any contact with Russia as something reprehensible," Ryabkov said.
