Bolton to arrange US-Russia summit

MOSCOW — President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, will visit Moscow to plan a meeting with Vladimir Putin, the White House said Thursday.

Bolton will travel to the Russian capital next week to discuss the possible talks.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, took pains Thursday to emphasize that so far the sides had reached no agreement on a meeting that Russian news outlets reported might occur in Vienna in July. “When and if we are ready, we will make the announcement,” Peskov said in a conference call with journalists.

Trump has been seeking a meeting with Putin since March, when he telephoned the Russian president to congratulate him on winning another term in an election widely viewed in the West as a sham. During their call, Trump broached the idea of a White House visit by Putin, who has not been there since 2005.

Some administration officials have expressed hopes of persuading Trump not to go forward with such a meeting, viewing it as counterproductive at a time when Russia’s meddling during the 2016 U.S. election is under scrutiny.

A meeting, in that view, would seem especially out of place, given the recent tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats after the poisoning of a Russian former spy living in Britain, which London has blamed on Moscow.

But Trump has insisted, pushing his national security team to reach out to Moscow and set up the meeting. Russian officials have eagerly sought such a session, too, because they view Trump as a constructive partner. In their opinion, a meeting between the two leaders could circumvent the resistance of lower-ranking officials.

At the least, Trump’s aides have sought to avoid having any meeting at the White House, which could be seen as a reward for an adversary who, according to U.S. intelligence agencies, personally ordered efforts to intervene in the 2016 campaign on Trump’s behalf.

For his part, Putin has said he is ready to meet Trump “as soon as the American side is ready.” The planned visit by Bolton, appointed national security adviser in March, suggests progress.

Earlier this year, the Treasury Department imposed a new round of sanctions on Russian businessmen, and the United States joined allies in denouncing the Russian government for a nerve agent attack in Britain on a former Russian spy and his daughter. Bolton