The Moscow Times: Russia requests the U.S. to unfreeze its frozen assets.

Following the implementation of economic sanctions against Russia due to its military invasion of Ukraine, approximately six billion dollars worth of Russian assets have been frozen in the United States. The total amount of Russian assets frozen globally due to sanctions is around 300 billion dollars.

A meeting of high-ranking delegations from Russia and the United States took place in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on February 18. Both sides described the meeting as positive. An agreement was reached to restore the full operation of the U.S. embassies in Moscow and Russia's embassy in Washington. A key issue was the pursuit of a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Wednesday that he highly values the outcomes of the meeting in Riyadh and would "happily" meet with his American counterpart Donald Trump when the meeting is prepared. According to Putin, "it's not enough to just meet for tea and coffee." Trump previously indicated that the meeting could take place by the end of February. Putin did not specify a possible date.

The Russian president also mentioned that further dialogue between Russia and the United States does not require intermediaries, and that at the meeting in Riyadh, the American side included "completely different [presumably, compared to representatives of the previous U.S. administration under Joe Biden] people, without bias or judgments."

Putin also reiterated his readiness for negotiations involving Ukraine - however, he previously set conditions for the initiation of such talks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier indicated that his country would not accept any decisions regarding negotiations if they were conducted without Kyiv's participation.