A Russian government spokesman confirmed Wednesday that Kremlin officials will meet next week in Switzerland with U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, Reuters reported.
“Such contacts are indeed planned and being prepared,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders first told reporters at her Tuesday press briefing that Bolton would meet with Russian officials next week in Geneva. The national security adviser plans to sit down with representatives from several countries in the coming week, Sanders said.
The planned meeting with Russian officials is the first since President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Helsinki, Finland, earlier this summer.
“Ambassador Bolton will meet with officials in Israel and Ukraine as well as with his Russian counterpart in Geneva as a follow-up to the Helsinki summit to discuss a range of important national security issues,” Sanders said.
When he met with Putin last month, Trump faced criticism for what was widely seen as an overly warm relationship with Putin. Trump appeared hesitant to acknowledge Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election during a side-by-side press conference with Putin, although American intelligence officials have long concluded that the Kremlin was involved.
The 2016 election is under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is charged not only with probing Russia’s election interference but also allegations that the Trump campaign colluded in those efforts. Trump has regularly questioned the integrity of the probe, characterizing the investigation as “rigged” and a “witch hunt.”
The U.S. announced a new round of sanctions on Russia last week in connection to the country’s alleged use of an illegal nerve agent in an attempt to kill an ex-spy in the U.K. The Kremlin, which has denied involvement in the assassination attempt, called the sanctions “absolutely illegal.”
Those sanctions take effect at the end of the month.