ISTANBUL: Russian and US teams held six hours of talks in Turkiye on Thursday to try to restore normal functioning of their embassies, and Vladimir Putin said initial contacts with Donald Trump’s new administration had inspired hope.

The talks, focused narrowly on conditions for each other’s diplomats, provided an early test of the two countries’ ability to reset wider relations, amid a Trump administration outreach effort that has alarmed Washington’s European allies and Kyiv.

The Kremlin last year described relations as “below zero” under the administration of Joe Biden, who backed Ukraine with aid and weapons and imposed sanctions on Russia to punish it for its invasion in 2022. But Trump, who has promised a quick end to the war, has upended US policy swiftly to open talks with Moscow, beginning with a phone call to Putin on February 12 and a high-level diplomatic meeting in Saudi Arabia six days later.

Russian state news agency TASS said Thursday’s talks, held at the gated residence of the US consul general in Istanbul, wrapped up after some six hours without any statements to the press.

Ukraine and its European allies are worried that Trump’s rapid rapprochement with Moscow could lead to a deal on ending the war that sidelines them and undermines their security. Trump says he wants to end the bloodshed with an early ceasefire.

Putin this week tempered expectations of a quick deal, saying trust between Russia and the US had to be rebuilt before anything could be achieved. But in televised comments to members of the FSB security service on Thursday, he said: “I note that the first contacts with the new American administration inspire certain hopes.” “There is a reciprocal mood to work to restore intergovernmental ties and to gradually resolve the huge number of systemic and strategic problems that have built up in the world’s security architecture.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Istanbul talks were expected to be the first in a series of contacts aimed at building confidence and removing “irritants” in bilateral relations.

In an example of judicial cooperation, the office of Russia’s prosecutor general said Dmitry Koshelev, wanted by Moscow on suspicion of stealing $1.5 million from a courier at gunpoint in 2014, was being deported from the United States on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2025