"Piles of problems," but Russia calls 1st top-level meeting with Biden administration "positive"

Moscow — Russia's government on Thursday called the first face-to-face meeting between senior Russian and U.S. diplomats under the Biden administration "positive." The Kremlin said the meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday bode well for a potential summit this summer between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden.

Both sides described the discussion, which went on for almost two hours, as constructive, but cautioned that there were a lot of issues still to address before bilateral relations — currently wallowing near Cold War lows — could be normalized. "Indeed, there are piles of problems. It will be difficult to clear this logjam," Lavrov told journalists after the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of an Arctic Council summit in Iceland. "But I felt that Antony Blinken and his team are willing to do it, and we are ready to work together."