A spokesman for Russia’s foreign ministry said they expect to schedule a call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump soon. | Getty Russia foreign ministry: Date for Trump-Putin call being finalized

A spokesman for Russia’s foreign ministry said Monday that his government expects to finalize a date soon for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first phone call with President Donald Trump since his inauguration last week.

On a conference call with reporters that was reported by Reuters, Russian foreign ministry spokesman Dmitry Peskov would not speculate on the potential for cooperation between the two nations in combating Islamic State militants. He said the two governments were working to set a date for Trump and Putin to speak.


While Trump has promised a much tougher American foreign policy, he has taken a decidedly softer stance towards Russia that has perplexed and angered even some of his fellow Republicans. He has lavished praise on Putin and suggested that he might be willing to lift sanctions against Russia imposed over its annexation of Crimea and military incursion into Ukraine.

Those sanctions have badly damaged Russia’s economy, but Trump has said he might be willing to lift them in exchange for a drawdown of nuclear weapons or even if the relationship between the two nations improves under his administration.

“If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody’s doing some really great things?” Trump told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.