The Russian ambassador met in Washington with the acting US Department of Ministers

Acting Deputy Secretary of State of the United States Thomas Shennon and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak met on Tuesday in Washington. The State Department announced the plans for the meeting with the head of the Russian diplomatic mission on Monday, and later the department confirmed that the meeting took place.

"Deputy Secretary of State Schlenon regularly meets with foreign ambassadors on a number of questions. Although we do not disclose the details of diplomatic conversations, we note that this was a long -planned meeting," the representative of the State Department told RIA Novosti . At the Embassy of the Russian Federation, they refrained from comments.

The meeting of the Russian ambassador with representatives of the State Department was the first to be publicly announced from the moment the Secretary of State Rex Tilleryson was in the position of February 1.

The content of the conversation between Shannon and Kislyak, which passed behind closed doors, is not reported to the State Department. However, earlier the Russian ambassador in an interview with Russian journalists called some topics that will be discussed during contacts with the American side.

In particular, last week the diplomat said that it is planned to start preparing the meeting of Tillerson and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Negotiations may take place either in Bonn, where on February 15-17, a meeting of the heads of diplomatic departments of the G20 countries, or at the Security Conference planned on February 17-19. Among the topics that may be affected, Lavrov himself called the issues of bilateral relations, the situation in Ukraine, other urgent international problems.

In addition, as Kislyak reported, the parties intend to start the preparation of the meeting of the heads of the US and the Russian Federation, in which there is an active need.

In February 2016, Thomas Shannon, even under the administration of President Barack Obama, took the position of deputy Secretary of State for political issues. Prior to the approval of the candidate of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, he acted as the head of the State Department in the transition period.

It should be noted that the meeting of Shannon and Kislyak was held against the backdrop of a loud scandal with the resigner of the US presidential adviser Michael Flynn. On Monday evening, Flynn left his post, admitting that he provided the White House with incomplete information about contacts with the Russian ambassador.

The Washington Post previously reported that Flynn discussed anti -Russian sanctions with Sergey Kislyak a month before the inauguration of Trump, and allegedly gave a signal to the Kremlin that restrictive measures against Moscow would be weakened. In an interview with Daily Caller, a few hours before the resignation, Flynn said that he had not crossed borders and "became famous for the whole world for erroneous reasons." The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov last week confirmed that Flynn talked with Kislyak, but noted that their conversation was transferred incorrectly.