Putin Ready For Talks With Incoming US Prez: Kremlin

The Kremlin said Friday that President Vladimir Putin was open to talks with Donald Trump, after the incoming US president said a meeting between the pair was being set up.

- Agencies

MOSCOW: "The president has repeatedly stated his openness to contact with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20, has repeatedly said he can bring a swift end to the nearly three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine, without presenting a concrete plan.

On Thursday he said a meeting with Putin was being arranged. "He wants to meet, and we're setting it up," Trump said at a meeting with Republican governors at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

"President Putin wants to meet, he's said that even publicly, and we have to get that war over with, that's a bloody mess," he said.