Russia announced the team that will participate in the negotiations with the US in Saudi Arabia on Monday. They will discuss a possible ceasefire agreement in the Black Sea, DPA reported, BTA reported.
The Russian negotiating team will be led by diplomat Grigory Karasin and Sergei Beseda, a politician and government plenipotentiary, the Kremlin said.
The talks in Riyadh, which were initially expected to take place on Sunday, will focus on the US proposal on ways to ensure safe shipping in the Black Sea by implementing a limited ceasefire.
Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs adviser, expressed hope for productive negotiations, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Ukraine has not been invited to the meeting, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that US representatives will have separate talks with Ukrainian officials before talking to the Russian side.
Russia withdrew from the previous agreement concluded with Turkey's mediation, which allowed Ukrainian grain to be exported across the Black Sea. Since then, Ukraine has been transporting grain across the Black Sea without guarantees for the ships' security. In early March, a vessel loading wheat for export to Algeria was hit by a Russian missile. Four Syrian citizens who were part of the crew were killed in the strike.
Seventy-five-year-old Karasin is a senator and chairman of the foreign policy committee in the Federation Council (the upper house of the Russian parliament). Seventy-year-old Beseda works as an adviser to the Federal Security Service (FSB) and is considered a close ally of President Putin. In the past, he headed the FSB's Fifth Service, which is responsible for international espionage and inspections of countries of the former Soviet Union - in particular Ukraine, DPA notes.