White House National Security Advisor John Bolton
The Kremlin said on Wednesday preparations were underway for a meeting in Geneva next week between Russian officials and White House national security adviser John Bolton, the first top-level meeting since the Russian and U.S. presidents met in Helsinki.
"Such contacts are indeed planned and being prepared," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday. Peskov did not elaborate further.
U.S. President Donald Trump faced criticism at home after he met Vladimir Putin in the Finnish capital in July, and refused to blame the Russian leader for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
A new round of U.S. sanctions targeting Russia was announced in the wake of that criticism, prompting the Russian rouble to fall sharply.
Last week, Rand Paul, a Republican senator and Trump ally, travelled to the Russian capital, saying his trip aimed to encourage diplomacy amid the tense relations between Moscow and Washington.
Washington had said on Tuesday Bolton would meet Russian officials as a follow-up to the Helsinki summit.
China on Tuesday condemned measures targeting it in a new U.S. defence act, saying it would comprehensively assess aspects that beef up the role of a panel tasked with reviewing foreign investment proposals.China's complaints about the act come as the world's two biggest economies engage in an increasingly bitter fight over trade, levying tariffs on each others' products.U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $716-billion defence policy act on Monday that authorises military spending and waters down controls on U.S. government contracts with China's ZTE Corp and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd .The National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, strengthens the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews proposals to determine if they threaten national security. That measure was seen as targeting China.China blames 'ulterior motives' for criticism of its Xinjiang policiesChina's Commerce Ministry said it had noted the inclusion of CFIUS in the act and would "comprehensively assess the contents", paying close attention to the impact on Chinese firms."The U.S. side should objectively and fairly treat Chinese investors, and avoid CFIUS becoming an obstacle to investment cooperation between Chinese and U.S. firms," the ministry said in a statement.Chinese and U.S. companies seek greater cooperation on investment, it added, urging the two countries' governments to heed the voices of their companies, and provide a good environment and stable expectations.Monday's legislation also calls "long-term strategic competition with China" a top priority for the United States, which should improve the defence capabilities of self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as a wayward province.Chinese to boycott US products if trade war intensifiesIn a separate statement, China's foreign ministry said the United States passed the act despite China's strong objections and it was dissatisfied with the "negative content related to China".China urges the United States to abandon Cold War thinking and correctly and objectively view relations, and not implement the act's negative clauses about China, so as to avoid harming cooperation, the ministry added.Taiwan said it thanked the United States for its consistent support.Taiwan would "continue to actively coordinate with the U.S. government to stably deepen the security partnership between Taiwan and the United States on a mutually beneficial basis", Taiwan's foreign ministry said.The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is the island's strongest ally and sole foreign arms supplier.Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen is visiting the United States this month, stopping off first in Los Angeles and then in Houston on her way to and from Paraguay and Belize.China has complained to Washington about the visits. 
China angered at new US defence act, to assess content
Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who came under fire from President Donald Trump and other Republicans for sending text messages that disparaged the candidate during the presidential campaign, was fired late on Friday, his attorney said on Monday.Strzok is the third high-ranking person to be fired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the Trump administration, including former Director James Comey. During his FBI career, Strzok rose to deputy assistant director, focusing on counterintelligence.After Justice Department internal investigators found the texts, Strzok was reassigned from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign. The firing came after a lengthy internal investigation.Strzok's attorney, Aitan Goelman, said in a statement that FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich made the decision to terminate his client.The decision, Goelman added, was at odds with a recommendation by the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility, which had called for Strzok to face a 60-day suspension and demotion from his supervisory responsibilities.He also said it went against promises that FBI Director Christopher Wray made in the past about adhering to proper processes on personnel matters.The FBI said in a statement it had followed its standard review and disciplinary process after the inspector general referred the Strzok case to the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility."OPR reviewed the investigative materials, as well as the written and oral responses of Mr. Strzok and his counsel, and issued OPR's decision. The deputy director, as the senior career FBI official, has the delegated authority to review and modify any disciplinary findings ... as deemed necessary," the statement said.Strzok's attorney Goelman, however, said that normally FBI personnel can appeal such decisions to a five-person review board. Goelman said the appeals step was bypassed in Strzok's case and the FBI did not follow the normal course afforded to other FBI agents.Trump took to Twitter not long after the news broke on Monday."Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI-finally," wrote Trump, who had called for Strzok's ouster before."The list of bad players in the FBI & DOJ gets longer & longer."A post under a newly created Twitter account under Strzok's name said he was "deeply saddened" by the decision to fire him.The post also linked to a GoFundMe page, which had raised more than $48,700 toward a $150,000 goal as of late Monday."All funds raised on this GoFundMe will be put into a trust dedicated to covering Pete’s hefty – and growing – legal costs and his lost income," the fundraising website says.Goelman said that his client's firing was politically motivated and that his texts represented political speech protected by the First Amendment.'RUSSIA THING'In March, Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe after a scathing report by the Justice Department's internal watchdog concluded he had leaked information to reporters and misled investigators about his actions.Comey was fired by Trump in May 2017 after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein helped write a memo that was critical of how Comey handled the FBI's probe into then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official business.Later, however, Trump claimed he fired Comey over that "Russia thing," apparently referring to the FBI probe into whether his presidential campaign colluded with Russia. Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion and called the investigation a witch hunt.Both Comey and McCabe said, however, they believe they were fired because they are key witnesses in Special Counsel Mueller's probe into whether Trump may have tried to obstruct the investigation.Strzok was deeply involved in the FBI's Clinton email investigation and was temporarily assigned to Mueller's office. He was removed from that post after his texts came to light.The texts were criticized by the Justice Department's inspector general in a recent report that examined the FBI's handling of the Clinton email probe. Republicans in Congress have repeatedly pointed to them as evidence the FBI is biased against Trump.'Mueller case against Russian company can proceed': US judgeUS prosecutors to wrap up Manafort case, may soon go to juryWhite nationalist rally dwarfed by opposition in US
FBI agent, who criticized Trump in text messages, is fired