On May 5, Ryabkov told Sputnik that the meeting is "a step in the implementation of the agreements" that were reached during the meeting of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during the latter’s visit to Moscow.
According to Ryabkov, the issues of the access to Russian diplomatic property in the United States and the functioning of respective diplomatic missions in the countries will be discussed during the meeting, as well as the case of the alleged Russian hacker Roman Seleznev.
Seleznev, 32, was seized in 2014 by US Secret Service agents in the Maldives and taken to the United States. The Russian Foreign Ministry described the detention of the Russian citizen as kidnapping and violation of international law. The man was later convicted to 27 years in prison on charges of cyber fraud.
In late December, then-US President Barack Obama’s administration imposed a series of punitive measures against Russia, including the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and the closure of the two Russian diplomatic compounds, in response to Moscow's alleged interference in the US presidential elections.
