John Bolton Travels to Europe and Russia

The National Security Advisor of the President of the United States is traveling to Europe to meet with European officials. He will then head to Moscow to meet with Russian officials. According to some speculations, John Bolton's trip to Russia is aimed at preparing the ground for a possible meeting between Putin and Trump. John Bolton will meet with U.S. allies in London and Rome on July 4 and 5, and will travel to Moscow on July 6. Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, mentioned over the weekend that it is possible that Donald Trump, the President of the U.S., will meet with Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, in the not-so-distant future. It is unclear where this potential meeting will take place, but some officials suggest that Vienna, the capital of Austria, could be the venue. An Austrian newspaper reported that delegations from both the U.S. and Russia have gone to Vienna to prepare for the leaders' meeting on July 15. Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to Brussels on July 11 and 12 to attend a NATO summit and will also visit the UK on July 13. However, if Vladimir Putin meets with Trump, and this potential meeting occurs in Vienna or elsewhere in Europe, he would likely need to return to Russia soon to attend the final ceremony of the World Cup, which will be held on July 24. At the end of June, the Russian news agency Interfax reported, citing informed sources in Washington, that John Bolton is expected to travel to Moscow as part of the preparations for a meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents. The Russian state news agency TASS stated that the Kremlin is not yet ready to comment on the published reports. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, said, 'We are not ready to provide information on this matter.' He added, 'As soon as we are ready, we will inform you.' Trump and Putin have met twice on the sidelines of international meetings and have spoken and exchanged views at least eight times by phone. Their first face-to-face meeting took place on July 16 last year on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. At that time, Trump stated that he was looking for ways to cooperate with Putin, but significant differences currently exist between the two countries regarding developments in Syria and Ukraine, which pose a major obstacle. On March 20 of last year, Trump congratulated the Russian president on his election victory during a phone call, adding that he and Putin would 'probably meet in the not-so-distant future.' Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans in the U.S. have accused Trump of adopting a lenient approach towards Moscow.