Senior Putin aide names Russian negotiating team ahead of Alaska summit

As well as a one-on-one meeting between Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump at their planned summit in Alaska on Friday, senior Putin aide Yury Ushakov has told journalists that a five-strong delegation from each side would meet after the two leaders’ talks had ended to continue negotiations, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Thursday.

According to Ushakov, Putin and Trump are due to sit down together at 11:30am local time (7:30pm UTC) on Friday at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage before being joined by their respective five-strong delegations.

The five senior officials on the Russian delegation are Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defence Minister Andrey Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev and Ushakov himself. The composition of the US delegation has not yet been announced.

The delegations are due to continue their discussion over a joint working breakfast, Ushakov added, after which Putin and Trump are expected to hold a joint press conference. Though Ushakov described the main topic of the talks as “the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis,” he added that the Russian and US delegations had also agreed to touch upon bilateral economic cooperation and global security issues.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday that in preparation for the Alaska summit, Putin had held a meeting with members of Russia’s top leadership as well as key figures in the government and the Presidential Administration.

After the meeting, Putin praised the Trump administration for making what he called “sincere efforts” to end the Ukraine “conflict”, according to Reuters, and suggested that the summit could also lead to a new deal on nuclear arms control between the two countries.