Putin is holding meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry

SOCHI, May 12. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the Bocharov Ruchei residence.

This is Putin’s first meeting with a senior US official since the cooling of relations over the Ukrainian crisis.

Kerry arrived at Bocharov Ruchei after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Presidential press-secretary Dmitry Peskov earlier said the diplomats would brief Putin on the results of their contacts.

Peskov said the Kremlin had welcomed Kerry’s decision to visit Russia, because that would contribute to the dialogue and to progress towards the normalization of relations and tight coordination in international issues.

"It is very positive the US Secretary of State made a decision to hold contacts with his Russian counterpart," he said. "This is a positive development in itself, because we have stated more than once at various levels (the president said this, too) that Russia has never been the initiator of a cool-off in relations. We have always remained open to manifestations of political will to have a wider dialogue.".