MOSCOW—Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Moscow on Wednesday for the first face-to-face U.S. meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin since he announced a pullback of Russian forces in Syria this month.
Mr. Kerry will seek to determine whether Mr. Putin is more amenable to removing Bashar al-Assad from power now that a fragile cease-fire has been declared on the ground and peace talks are progressing in Geneva between rebels and the Syrian government, said a senior State Department official.
Mr. Kerry’s trip, which lasts until Friday, “will be a chance to evaluate where we are,” the official said.
“They’ve had quite a bit of contact with Assad in recent weeks and, obviously, if this cessation of hostilities is going to transform into a true transformation for Syria, it’s going to have to involve getting down to brass tacks on what that political transition looks like,” the official said.
So far, Mr. Putin has shown no signs of budging from his support of Assad.
Russia warned on Monday that it could unilaterally start using force in response to cease fire violations in Syria and said the U.S. was dragging out talks on coordination on rules for engagement in Syria. The State Department has insisted the U.S. is working with Russia to constructively monitor the truce.
Russia and the U.S. co-chair a task force of at least a dozen other nations backing the truce in Syria. The group has been meeting over the past few weeks to review reports of truce violations.
Mr. Kerry also will press Moscow on Ukraine, and to use its influence over pro-Russian separatists to honor a cease-fire that has shown signs of crumbling since the beginning of the year. But Moscow claims it doesn’t support the separatists in Ukraine.
In a gesture of indifference toward U.S. opinion, a Russian court Tuesday sentenced a Ukrainian pilot, Nadya Savchenko, to 22 years in prison after convicting her of murder for military operations against rebels over eastern Ukraine where two Russian journalists were killed.
Mr. Kerry “will certainly raise [Lt.] Savchenko, as he has raised her before,” said the senior State Department official. “We are very concerned.”
The official said that Russia and the U.S. have been in continuous contact on a high level about issues in Syria and in Ukraine in recent weeks, and the visit this week was a follow-up to a phone call between Mr. Putin and President Barack Obama two weeks ago.
“On the Russian side there is really one decision maker and you need to be in the room with him to evaluate what is possible,” the official said, referring to Mr. Putin. “And that the secretary wants to do.

Source: Wall Street Journal, MARCH 23