Following his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Sochi in May, US Secretary of State John Kerry stressed the opportunities for US-Russian cooperation in managing several of the Middle East’s most visible security challenges. What remains unclear is the extent to which either Washington or Moscow will be willing to pursue these opportunities.

Kerry’s trip and his meetings were a sharp departure from Washington’s approach to Russia since the spring of 2014, as the United States has shunned high-level bilateral engagement. Indeed, senior US and Russian officials have generally met only in multilateral events, or on the margins of these events, since Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. Washington likewise avoided sending top officials to Russia, including for international events such as the country’s massive celebration of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe on May 9, where US Ambassador John Tefft represented the United States during the commemorative ceremonies.

Initially, it looked like the Barack Obama administration might be trying something different with Kerry’s trip; after all, why send the secretary of state to Sochi to meet with Russia’s president if not to explore a new effort at engaging with Moscow? That interpretation produced criticism in the United States and anxiety in some parts of Europe, where fears grew that Washington might push aside US-Russian differences over Ukraine to pursue a nuclear agreement with Iran and coordinated policies toward the Islamic State (IS), civil wars in Syria and Yemen and other Middle East challenges. Nevertheless, others, including the editors of the Financial Times, defended the effort in part due to the need to work with Moscow on Iran and Syria. 

In comments to the press following his meetings with Putin and Lavrov, Kerry focused on precisely these issues. Only after an extended statement about Iran, IS and Syria — during which he described Russia as “a very important partner in the global effort against violent extremism” — did Kerry turn to Ukraine. Kerry also thanked Putin twice for the meetings and conveyed President Obama’s gratitude, something rather rare in US official statements over the last 16 months, adding (without visible irony and despite prior US reluctance to do so) that he and Lavrov “rarely have the chance to be able to speak for as long as we did today.”