Russia Seeks to Add Trade and Arms Control Into Trump-Putin Talks

A day ahead of the meeting between President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the Kremlin on Thursday signaled that apart from Ukraine, it was also interested in discussing other subjects, like economic links and nuclear arms.

Remarks by Mr. Putin and his foreign policy aide highlighted how, when dealing with Washington, Moscow has tried to dilute discussions about ending the fighting in Ukraine by packaging them together with other bilateral issues. In particular, Russia has focused on the prospect of discussing arms control and restoring economic ties with the United States.

On Thursday, Mr. Putin convened top officials at the Kremlin to brief them about the next day’s meeting. In his opening remarks, Mr. Putin said he believed that the United States was making “quite energetic efforts to stop the fighting, end the crisis, and reach agreements of interest to all parties involved in this conflict.”

He added that an agreement on Ukraine “would create long-term conditions of peace between our countries, in Europe, and in the world as a whole, if we reach agreements in the next stages in the field of strategic offensive arms control.”

Because of increased hostility between the two countries and the power disparity after the Soviet collapse, the arms-control regime that anchored relations between Moscow and Washington during the Cold War has significantly weakened. At the beginning of August, Russia said that it would no longer abide by a defunct treaty prohibiting the deployment of intermediate-range missiles.

The nuclear arms reduction treaty, signed in 2011 during a brief thaw between the two countries, is set to expire next February.