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- There are still questions: the first meeting of Russian and US parliamentarians since 2022 may be held at the UN General Assembly.
There are still questions: the first meeting of Russian and US parliamentarians since 2022 may be held at the UN General Assembly.
The first meeting of Russian and American parliamentarians since the beginning of its work may take place in New York at the 80th UN General Assembly. Moscow is ready for dialogue with members of Congress, Grigory Karasin, chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, who will join the Russian delegation, told Izvestia. The expert community believes that a variety of issues may be on the agenda: from sanctions relief and economic cooperation with individual states to strategic stability. Negotiations between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who will traditionally lead the Russian delegation, are also possible. The prospects for normalization of the interparliamentary dialogue between the two countries and the current level of relations between Moscow and Washington are described in the Izvestia article.
Meeting of members of the Parliaments of the Russian Federation and the USA
In less than a month, the high-level week of the General Assembly will begin at the UN headquarters in New York. The Russian delegation will once again be headed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. It also includes, in particular, the heads of the parliamentary committees on international affairs, Grigory Karasin and Leonid Slutsky. Karasin does not rule out that he may meet with congressional colleagues during his visit to the United States.
— There were no such meetings in previous years. But a lot has changed this year, and we met with the Americans in Riyadh, and there were meetings between Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov and [Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation] Yuri Viktorovich Ushakov with American partners. Therefore, it seems to me that such meetings are quite likely," he told Izvestia.
In June 2025, Konstantin Kosachev, Vice Speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, announced that there were no contacts with the United States through the Federation Council and the Senate, but noted that the Russian Federation was always ready to restore them.
Even before the meeting, at the beginning of 2022, a group for relations with the American Congress was formed in the State Duma, headed by Vyacheslav Nikonov, first deputy head of the Duma's International affairs committee. However, her work was soon completely frozen, and the United States imposed sanctions against the majority of State Duma deputies and many members of the Federation Council. In addition, restrictions were imposed on the Federation Council and the State Duma as institutions. Nevertheless, back in November 2022, Vyacheslav Nikonov noted that the lower house was open to parliamentary contacts with the United States.
Relations between Russia and the United States deteriorated after the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014, but some inter-parliamentary ties remained. For the first time since the Crimean events, a group of American congressmen visited Russia in 2018. The delegation was led by Richard Shelby, Chairman of the Congressional Appropriations Committee. The State Duma greeted its overseas colleagues with applause. A month later, Republican Senator Rand Paul visited Moscow.
In case of resumption of the inter-parliamentary dialogue, the parties could discuss cooperation on topics of mutual interest, political scientists believe.
— The agenda of bilateral relations is very broad. It would probably be interesting for us to ease sanctions in the part that relates to the American Congress," Andrei Kortunov, an expert at the Valdai Club, told Izvestia. — If any negotiations on strategic offensive weapons begin, it is clear that any legally binding agreement must pass through the Senate. This means that American senators should be prepared so that they do not block such an agreement and favorably consider its ratification.
Other topics could be guarantees of mutual non-interference in elections, as well as targeted economic projects, the analyst believes.
— Since American congressmen represent individual states, they have certain economic interests. For example, congressmen from Washington State may be interested in exporting Boeing to Russia. If this is Massachusetts, high-tech projects are possible. If Houston (Texas) is a cooperation in the field of energy, — said Andrey Kortunov.
Developing a dialogue between Russia and the United States
Since the beginning of 2025, Moscow and Washington have been in direct contact at the highest level. The Presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States held seven telephone conversations, as well as a personal meeting in Alaska, which was a real breakthrough in bilateral contacts since the beginning of their cooperation.
"I am sure that the leadership qualities of the current President Trump are a good guarantee that our relations will be restored," Vladimir Putin said on August 22.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump during a meeting in Alaska
There is also an active dialogue between representatives and assistants of the leaders Kirill Dmitriev and Steve Witkoff, as well as the heads of the foreign ministries Sergey Lavrov and Marco Rubio. It is possible that the Russian Foreign Minister will hold new face-to-face talks with his American counterpart at the UN headquarters in September. However, it will be more difficult to restore inter-parliamentary dialogue than at the executive level, Andrei Kortunov believes.
— There have traditionally been more critics of Russia on Capitol Hill than in the White House. And they could afford more radical views. As, for example, in the European Parliament. This is the specifics of the legislative branch: some politicians are looking for popularity, they need to take some prominent positions, and they are trying to distinguish themselves by rigidity," he explained.
The restoration of bilateral relations is also hampered by the lack of serious progress in resolving the crisis in Ukraine.
"Dialogue at the parliamentary level is premature, especially given the lack of significant progress in resolving the Ukrainian conflict," Thomas Graham, Distinguished Fellow at the American Council on Foreign Relations and former special assistant to U.S. President George W. Bush on Russia and Eurasia, said in an interview with Izvestia.
At the same time, the expert believes that non-public "discreet" contacts between individual members of parliament could help achieve progress in Ukraine.
After the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska, Washington began discussing with Kiev and European leaders the issue of territorial concessions from Ukraine and security guarantees for it. The United States is calling on Europe to assume primary responsibility, while Washington itself is ready to provide assistance with aviation, intelligence and military coordination of the allies. Against this background, Trump's special envoy Keith Kellogg arrived in Kiev on August 24. Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Kyslytsa said that a draft draft of security guarantees could be ready this week.
At the same time, Russia believes that security guarantees for Kiev should be provided on an equal basis with the participation of China, the United States, Great Britain and France. Moscow emphasizes that this issue cannot be resolved without Russia. It is not yet clear whether a meeting between Putin, Trump and Zelensky is possible in the near future, or bilateral talks between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine. Earlier, Sergey Lavrov said that the Russian president was ready to meet with Zelensky. However, such negotiations should be handled properly.
The settlement of the Ukrainian crisis is only one of the areas of cooperation between the Russian Federation and the United States. Moscow is also interested in developing economic projects with Washington. Earlier, Vladimir Putin said that Russia was discussing the possibility of working with the United States in the context of obtaining liquefied natural gas, not only in the Russian Arctic zone, but also in Alaska.
— No one has the technologies that Russia has for working in the Arctic. This is of interest to its partners, including the United States," the Russian president said.
Contacts between the Russian Federation and the United States also remain in the field of space. At the end of July, the heads of the two countries' space agencies, Dmitry Bakanov, head of Roscosmos, and Sean Duffy, Director of NASA, held a meeting for the first time in eight years. The parties are currently discussing cooperation in the operation of the International Space Station (ISS). Roscosmos and NASA agree that the ISS needs to be operated at least until 2028, but it is likely to remain in demand until 2030.
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