Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will arrive in Russia as experts raise alarms about Moscow’s intent to once again meddle in American elections. | Chris J. Ratcliffe/Getty Images Foreign Policy Pompeo to meet with Putin in Russia next week

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Russia early next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the State Department announced Friday, as tensions simmer between the two countries over a host of issues.

Pompeo will meet with both Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss the “full range of bilateral and multilateral challenges," the State Department said Friday. The secretary will travel first to Moscow, where he will meet with U.S. Embassy staff, and then to Sochi, where he will meet with Putin and Lavrov.


The visit comes as Washington and Moscow have clashed over a number of foreign policy disputes, most critically during last week’s failed uprising in Venezuela. Top U.S. officials like Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton have accused Russia of intervening against opposition leader Juan Guaidó in his attempts to oust dictator Nicolás Maduro and using Cuban forces as a front to reinforce Maduro’s regime.

Pompeo has often taken a tougher line on Russian aggression than his boss, President Donald Trump, who last week told reporters that Putin assured him Russia “is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela.”

Earlier this week, the Kremlin also panned Washington’s escalation of tensions with Iran. A spokesperson for Putin accused the Trump administration of provoking Tehran into rolling back some of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal. The U.S. pulled out of the agreement last year and reimposed crippling sanctions on the country, slapping on more sanctions Wednesday and dispatching a Navy carrier group to the region.

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Pompeo's trip to Russia also comes on the heels of Putin's meeting last month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has returned to launching missile tests in recent weeks. Kim and Trump had been in denuclearization talks that have cooled dramatically since a meeting earlier this year in Vietnam ended without an agreement between the U.S. and North Korea.

The White House said last week that talk of winding down North Korea's nuclear program made up a significant chunk of Trump and Putin's recent phone call.

The secretary will also arrive in Russia as the conflict between the White House and congressional Democrats over the Mueller report continues to dominate the news in Washington, and as experts raise alarms about Moscow’s intent to once again meddle in American elections.