Putin, Trump may meet first without aides

MOSCOW, July 03 (Agencies): A Kremlin spokesman says that Russian President Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump may meet in private during their upcoming summit in Helsinki.
Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday that if both sides agree, Putin and Trump could meet tete-a-tete without their aides before the start of the official meeting on July 16.
Peskov says, "President Putin feels absolutely comfortable in all formats that are comfortable for his interlocutors" and the Kremlin "doesn't rule out" such a meeting.
A US congressional delegation was in Moscow on Tuesday meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian parliamentarians. Relations between Russia and the US have sunk to their lowest point in decades amid US sanctions over Russian meddling in the US election and Russia's action in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Republican US senators met with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on a rare visit to Moscow Tuesday ahead of a summit between the countries' presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
The US delegation is in Russia until Thursday, ahead of the summit planned in Helsinki on July 16, at a time of high tension between Russia and the West.
"We recognise that the world is better off, I believe, if Russia and the US have fewer tensions, get a long a little better, maybe put aside some differences," Senator Richard Shelby said during Tuesday's meeting with Lavrov at the Russian foreign ministry.
"We are competitors, but we don't necessarily need to be adversaries," said Shelby, a Republican senator from Alabama, in televised comments.
"We're hoping that coming out of the Putin-Trump meeting in Helsinki, it will be the beginning, maybe, of a new day," Shelby added. "We will have to wait and see."
Lavrov, speaking in English, said he hoped that the US senators' visit "will symbolise the resumption of relations between the (US and Russian) parliaments." "I think the resumption of dialogue is going to be a very timely event on the eve of the forthcoming meeting between the two presidents," he added.
The senators were due to meet representatives of Russia's lower and upper houses of parliament later Tuesday.