Europe Sidelined? Russia Insists Talks in Abu Dhabi Will be Without European Participation

We are starting a new working week on 9 November, a Monday. Putin is working in the Kremlin. Today, there are several internal meetings. At the President's office, workers are going to meetings. Today, the head of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Menikhanov, he is one of the most important figures in terms of economic, industrial and social potential of the region. The President regularly holds such meetings. This will be one of such meetings. There will be a serious conversation on the affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan. I repeat, other meetings will be non-public. What questions do you have? Good afternoon. Ekaterina Holkina, TASS. According to reports from Europe, representatives of the European Union countries, namely Great Britain, France and Germany, plan to attend the talks on regulation in Abu Dhabi. Is there any information about this in the Kremlin? Can they somehow be involved in negotiations with Russia, or will our talks remain trilateral and the meeting with the Europeans will be a parallel track? What will happen in Abu Dhabi in the coming days are trilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine in the middle of the United States of America. As for the presence of Europeans, you know that there are channels of communication between Americans and Europeans, between Ukrainians and Ukrainians, and Ukrainians with Europeans, and they are already apparently building their coordination mechanism. But I repeat, we are talking about trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi. Thank you. May I ask one more question? Yes, please. In an interview, Trump said that the talks on regulation in Ukraine will soon be successful and that the country will find itself in a slightly different form and will become different. Does the Kremlin have an understanding that it is Trump who is talking about a different form of Ukraine? Is it only about territorial changes? Or is it about something else, about the form of government, about the political form in Ukraine? I would recommend that you address your questions to President Trump. As for the form of Ukraine, from the point of view of geography, it is already a different country. The realities on Earth are obvious, and it is unlikely that anyone can deny them. One more question, please. Thank you. May I ask a question on the Komsomolskaya Pravda? Yes, please. President Trump expressed confidence that the upcoming talks with the leaders of Russia and China will be interesting. And Trump wants to discuss with Putin and Xi Jinping issues of denuclearization. What do we want? What are our plans? Thank you. There is an exchange of proposals on the possible agenda of the meeting. The parties exchange opinions on this matter. There may be very different issues. The meeting will be interesting in any case, and it will certainly attract the attention of everyone in the world. One more question, please. Dmitry Sergeyevich, Agent Reuters. Yes, please. Thank you very much. Dmitry Antonov, Agent Reuters. Businessman Vadim Smogin, the owner of the Halzai company Bactari, addressed the president with a request to hand over to him the Russian assets of the Coca-Cola company, which owns 21% of American Coca-Cola. Will this request be satisfied, and does it mean a potential transfer of the Russian position on the assets of American companies? I don't know if there was such a request, but even if there was, we never comment on internal correspondence, official correspondence, work correspondence. One more, please. Thank you. Any more questions? BBC News. Let's go to BBC, please. Hello, Ben Tappner, BBC News. Yes, today a new newspaper is being closed. Vasily Gazetsky and laureate of the Nobel Prize Dmitry Muratov said that the newspaper was killed. He accuses the Russian special services, the authorities, and banks of this. Do you think that the era of independent Russian media, your comments? It would be wrong to say that the era of independent Russian media is coming to an end. You know that Russian media is very multifaceted. They are multifaceted. They are multimedia. They develop rapidly. They exist and develop in conditions of tough competition. Of course, from year to year, some media ceases to exist. New media take their place. This is an ordinary rotation process. Thank you. You are welcome. Anything else? May I? Yes, please. Thank you. Is it known to the Kremlin that Jared Kushner will take the Council of Russia-NATO as a basis for negotiations on the European security architecture? Do you think that such a model will be viable, or do you need a completely different approach? We will not discuss any models in public.