US, Russian presidents to hold closed video meeting on Dec. 7

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - A video meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden will be held on Tuesday at around 6 p.m. Moscow time (1500GMT), Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Monday.

The whole meeting will be closed, there will be no live broadcast, while a video of the first minutes of the meeting will be shared on the Kremlin website, Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

"We believe that this will be a sufficiently thorough and lengthy video conference, held via a secure line of communication. We think that it will be lengthy in time," he said.

Putin and Biden will discuss tensions around Ukraine, NATO's advance to the Russian borders, and Moscow's demand to provide guarantees about the alliance's non-expansion, and implementation of the agreements reached during the Geneva summit in June.

The meeting is expected to be a direct conversation between the two leaders, but Peskov admitted that some other officials can also take part in it.

Following the meeting, the Kremlin press service will publish a routine statement and Putin does not plan to hold a news conference or any other press events, he said.