Russian Presidential spokesman – European Affairs Magazine

Russia seeks US coordination in Syria ceasefire efforts

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday to push a plan to create security zones and deploy peacekeepers in Syria as part of ceasefire efforts.The “de-escalation zones” would be situated in rebel-held territory in the northwestern province of Idlib, in parts of Homs province in the centre, in the south, and in the opposition enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus. Putin said that the creation of the so-called security zones would be hard to implement without US participation. Delegations will discuss the Russian plan at peace talks in Kazakhstan today.The phone call, the third between both leaders since Trump’s inauguration, is the first time the leaders have spoken since the US struck a Syrian airbase in retaliation for Syria’s chemical attack. The two parts agree to cooperate to end the syrian conflict.

Talks with Japan will not be harmed by the Russian deployment of missiles on Kuril Islands

24 Novembre 2016 BreakingNews @en/Defence di

Russian Presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, in the wake of media, reported that Russia had placed coastal missile systems Bastion and Bal on the Iturup and Kunashir islands, affirmed that the deployment of missile systems in the Kuril Islands is well founded and it should not harm Russia’s talks with Tokyo, including those on concluding a peace treaty. Russia and Japan have been in talks (with intermissions) over a peace treaty based on the outcome of World War II. Sovereignty over the southern part of the Kuril Islands is the stumbling block. After the war, the Soviet Union took over the whole of the Kuril archipelago. Japan keeps disputing sovereignty over the Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan islands and the uninhabited string of small islands Habomai. On Saturday, after a meeting with Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, affirmed that the peace treaty between the two countries isn’t a simple problem to resolve but Moscow-Tokyo consultations on the issue are continuing. At the same time, the Russian President affirmed that talks on signing a peace treaty prove the evidence of the progress in the relations between the two countries.