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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Secretary, colleagues, let me welcome you to Moscow once again.

I would like to note our mutual efforts to settle conflicts that we consider important and that must be resolved.

My latest conversation with President Obama convinced me that we are sincerely striving not only to maintain and develop our cooperation but also to achieve positive results.

I hope you will report to him – and please send him my best regards – that during our consultations today we also made headway in discussing and resolving the issues we are meeting to address.

United States Secretary of State John Kerry: Well, Mr President, thank you very much for taking time. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to meet. President Obama sends you his regards. He thought it was a constructive conversation, and hopefully we will be able to make some genuine progress that is measurable and implementable, and that can make a difference to the course of events in Syria. So I look forward very much to a serious conversation this evening and again tomorrow with Sergei. We have a lot of work to do.

The President and I both believe, Mr President, that the United States and Russia are in a position to make an enormous difference in the course of events, not just in Syria but obviously in Ukraine and even in other potential areas of cooperation. And so we are anxious to get to work. We have done a lot of groundwork but we’re not where we need to be yet and we hope to be able to get there.

So I’m ready to work. I know you are. Let’s go.

Vladimir Putin: President Obama drew my attention to the fact that we helped in the release of one of your citizens. I would like to say that we continue working in this area at your request and also hope the US side will reciprocate with constructive efforts if need be.

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