Senior U.S., Russian security officials kick off discussions in Geneva

A meeting between U.S. National Security Advisor John R. Bolton and Russia's Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev kicked off here Thursday morning.

The meeting, taking place amid Washington's fresh sanctions on Moscow, is expected to last several hours and a press briefing by Bolton is scheduled after the meeting.

An official from the U.S. mission in Geneva said that the closed-door meeting is a follow-up to the recent summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last month.

Earlier this week, Bolton told reporters that he planned to discuss at the meeting "a broad range of issues that may be open for discussion between Washington and Moscow", in particular, discussions of the situation in Syria and Iran's role there.

Russia's Security Council spokesman said earlier that a number of topical issues on the international agenda, as well as prospects of Russian-U.S. cooperation in the field of security, are planned to be discussed.