Putin satisfied with cooperation with US

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he is satisfied with the level of cooperation with the United States and hopes his contacts with President Barack Obama would make it still closer. “It is good that our contacts with colleagues from the United States are maintained at all level regularly,” Putin said opening a meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Putin recalled that he had recently had two telephone conversations with his US leader. “We had an opportunity to talk over many aspects of our relations,” he said. Earlier, US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon handed over to the Russian president a message from Barack Obama. “We are preparing a reply,” Putin said. “I hope to meet him personally in the near future,” the Russian president noted. According to Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, a meeting between Putin and Obama is planned during a summit of the Group of Eight in Northern Ireland on June 17-18. “We will have several possibilities for a meeting this year,” Putin added. Barack Obama is expected to pay a visit to Russia in September. It is also planned that he will take part in the Group of Twenty summit in St. Petersburg. Apart from that, the two leaders might have a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Indonesia in October.