By David Filipov Washington Post

MOSCOW – President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin may meet next week at an economic summit in Vietnam, a Kremlin spokesman said on Friday, even as the investigation in the United States into Russian election meddling heats up.

Trump is heading on a trip to Asia this weekend that is scheduled to include a stop at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which Putin is also scheduled to attend.

Asked Friday if there were plans for the two presidents to meet, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said he “we aren’t ruling out a Putin-Trump meeting in Vietnam” and that the details “are being coordinated now.” It would be their second meeting as world leaders.

“The importance for international affairs of any contact between the Russian and U.S. presidents can hardly be overestimated,” Peskov told reporters on his daily conference call.

Trump’s tour will begin in Japan with a golf outing with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday. It will also include meetings in Tokyo and then further stops in South Korea, China, and the Philippines.

The Kremlin on Wednesday offered condolences after the most lethal terrorist attack in New York City since 2001.

But Moscow and Washington have been at odds on nearly everything else since Putin and Trump held their first meeting at a summit of the Group of 20 world powers in Hamburg in July.

Trump in August signed on a tough new sanctions law against Russia, which the Kremlin cast as the end of hopes that the new U.S. president would build better ties. Putin later ordered the U.S. mission to Russia to reduce its staff by more than half.

Then there’s the ongoing investigation into whether Russia attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election, where charges have been handed down for the first time.

Peskov dismissed as “baseless” and “ludicrous” the notion that charges leveled by special counsel Robert Mueller against three former Trump campaign officials constituted proof the Russia meddled in U.S. political affairs.

The plea agreement of one of the officials described his extensive efforts to broker connections with Russian officials and arrange a meeting between them and the Trump campaign. It also said that he had made contact with a London-based professor who promised him “dirt” on Hillary Clinton compiled by the Russians, including thousands of emails.

Putin says he thinks Trump “agreed” with assurances that Russia did not interfere in U.S. elections