Theresa May and President Putin during a meeting in 2016. Her spokesman insisted that diplomatic relations were not being “normalised”

Theresa May has agreed to a face-to-face meeting with President Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan, prompting outrage from critics who believe Russia should remain in the cold after the Salisbury nerve agent poisonings.

The Kremlin confirmed that the meeting would go ahead after an agreement was reached following weeks of deliberation. British diplomatic sources had previously told The Times that a meeting would take place only if it had a clear purpose.

“The leaders will talk about sensitive matters, and quite a few of them have accumulated in our relations with the United Kingdom,” Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin aide, said. “If some opportunities can be found for normalising our co-operation, we will only welcome this.”

Downing Street confirmed that Mrs