The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu, Presidential Aide Nikolai Patrushev, Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin, and Special Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology and Transport Sergei Ivanov.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues,
Let’s begin. Today, we have a planned issue on our agenda – that of restoring Russian-American relations.
We know that the new administration led by President Trump is doing everything to restore at least something of what was practically reduced to nothing, destroyed by the previous US administration. This process is not easy, if not to say very complicated. Nevertheless, as everyone is well aware, I had a telephone conversation with President Trump, our Foreign Minister had the first contacts with his American counterpart, and Yury Ushakov, Aide to the President of Russia, met with his vis-a-vis. So, on the whole, the situation is starting to move. Let’s see how this will work out. This is our topic for today. We have two speakers: Mr Lavrov and Mr Naryshkin.
However, before we begin our work, I would like to say that we have noted today’s appeal by the US President, Mr Trump, to spare the lives of the Ukrainian servicemen, blocked by Russian forces in the Kursk Region incursion zone.
In this context, we make it a point that Ukrainian militants have committed numerous crimes against the civilian population in the incursion zone. These acts, as I have already mentioned, are qualified as terrorism by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation.
Still, we understand President Trump’s call to be guided by humanitarian considerations in treating these service members. In that regard, I stress that if they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment as per international law and Russian legislation.
To have the US President’s call effectively implemented, a relevant order is needed by Ukrainian military-political leadership to its armed units to lay down arms and surrender.
I suggest that we move on to the agenda, for which we have gathered today. Mr Lavrov, please, take the floor.
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