Russian President Vladimir Putin will have an informal meeting with former French President Nikolas Sarkozy in St. Petersburg today.
Earlier, Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov said that Vladimir Putin "will have an informal dinner with his old friend Nicolas Sarkozy" on June 15, adding that the talks will not be a protocol meeting.
They will possibly discuss the current state and future of Russian-French relations, the situation in the Middle East, in particular in Syria. Ushakov said Putin and Sarkozy planned to discuss a wide range of issues related to cooperation of the two countries in political, trade, investment and cultural sectors, TASS reports.
The meeting with Sarkozy will be the first in a series of meetings that Putin will hold in the next three days on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The Russian leader has scheduled meetings with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the Republic of Guinea Alpha Conde, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Renzi. Also. The head of state scheduled a number of meetings with representatives of the world's largest companies.
