CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

By Fred Weir, Correspondent / May 7, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin (r.) speaks to US Secretary of State John Kerry during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Tuesday. Kerry is making his case to Putin for Russia to take a tougher stance on Syria at a time when Israel’s weekend air strikes against the beleaguered Mideast nation have added an unpredictable factor to the talks.
Mikhail Klimentyev/Presidential Press Service/RIA-Novosti/AP

MOSCOW – Secretary of State John Kerry huddled in the Kremlin for several hours with President Vladimir Putin Tuesday, in what US officials described as an effort to “intensify” US-Russia dialogue and inject some fresh juice into a bilateral relationship that’s been stumbling aimlessly, amid growing acrimony, for over a year.

More urgently, he told Mr. Putin that Russia and the United States must try harder to forge a common position on the fast-deteriorating situation in Syria, where conflicting charges of chemical weapons usage have alarmed the big powers, and a series of Israeli airstrikes in recent days have raised the specter of a much wider war.

“The United States believes that we share some very significant common interests with respect to Syria,” Mr. Kerry told Putin.

RECOMMENDED: Vladimir Putin 101: A quiz about Russia’s president

Those mutual interests include promoting stability in the region, blocking extremists from gaining power, and working together to broker a peaceful political transition for the civil war-wracked country, he added.

But according to a brief note posted on the Kremlin’s official website, Putin indicated that he was only interested in a general discussion of “global problems” and would probably wait for his upcoming meetings with President Obama to make any serious decisions.

“I hope to soon meet with [Obama] in person. We will have opportunities to do so several times this year,” Putin wrote.

FULL  ARTICLE

More…