Putin, May to meet in near future: Kremlin

TIL Desk/World/Moscow-Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Theresa May have agreed to meet in “the near future”, the Kremlin has said. During a phone call initiated by London, the two leaders “planned to hold a private meeting in the near future,” the Kremlin said in a statement yesterday, without naming a date.

British relations with Russia have soured in recent years, notably over efforts to prosecute the case of Kremlin critic and former spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was murdered by radiation poisoning in London in 2006.

Britain has also been one of the most fervent supporters of Western sanctions against Moscow over Russia’s role in the Ukraine crisis. “While discussing topical issues in Russian-British relations, both sides expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of cooperation in the political, trade and economic spheres,” the Kremlin statement said.