Moscow, Aug 12 (UNI) Expressing optimism over the upcoming meeting between Russian President Vladmir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday, Moscow says it views the event as an opportunity to end its strained ties with Washington, reports RT.

In an interview on Russian media on Tuesday, the country's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the much-anticipated meeting would not merely focus on finding a settlement to the Russia-Ukraine war, but also dwell on ending the years of bad blood between the two nations, restoring the bilateral ties back to normal after they sank to their lowest under the administration of preceding US prez Joe Biden.

“We hope that the forthcoming high-level meeting will give an impulse to the normalisation of bilateral relations, which will allow us to move forward on several issues,” he said, confirming that restoring air links could be one of the items discussed.

Direct passenger flights between Russia and the US were suspended in 2022 under President Joe Biden, whose administration soon imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow following the Ukraine war.

The official said other topics would be at the table, with the meeting not only limited to discussing the war. On Monday, Trump said the summit – which he described as a “feel-out meeting” – would explore a potential deal involving the swapping of territory between Russia and Ukraine as part of a settlement – a solution heavily scorned by Ukraine and Europe.

However, the official acknowledged that “at this stage, there is no observable progress regarding the return of Russian diplomatic property in the US.” He was referring to several compounds, including Russia’s San Francisco consulate, which were closed by US authorities in 2016–2017.

The diplomacy between the two nations soured greatly during this period as Washington expelled several Russian diplomats, alleging ‘foreign interference’ in national elections, a claim the Kremlin denied. UNI ANV SSP