US Secretary of State May Visit Moscow on February 4-5

United States Secretary of State John Kerry may meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow in the beginning of February.

United States Secretary of State John Kerry may visit Moscow on February 4-5 to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the Kommersant newspaper said Thursday.

"Russian and US sides have been working on the possibility of US Secretary of State's visit to Moscow for several days. The visit is preliminary scheduled for February 4-5, but is not finally confirmed. If the sides agree on everything, it will be the first visit of US diplomacy head to Moscow since May 2013," the newspaper said.

It is expected that the foreign ministers will discuss a number of acute problems in bilateral relations, including the arrest of Russian banker Evgeny Buryakov accused of working for Russian intelligence in the United States.

The sides may also discuss Arab-Israeli conflict, Iranian nuclear program, situation in Syria and international fight against the Islamic State.

Relations between Russia and the West significantly deteriorated in 2014 over the Ukrainian crisis. The United States, the European Union and their allies did not recognize Crimea's reunification with Russia, and later accused the Kremlin of interfering in the conflict in the eastern Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly denied the accusations and has repeatedly urged parties involved in the Ukrainian conflict to establish direct dialogue.