moscow<u+2014>russia has started contacting colleagues of u.s. president-elect donald trump to discuss the crisis in syria, according to interfax, a russian news agency. mikhail bogdanov, deputy head of russia<u+2019>s foreign ministry, said thursday that moscow had been reaching out to mr. trump<u+2019>s team. <u+201c>we have already begun contacts with those people who most likely will be helping the new president,<u+201d> he said in comments reported by interfax. <u+201c>we hope that the departing and incoming administrations will proceed from the fact that without russia, it is impossible to solve the syria problem.<u+201d> earlier this week, russian president vladimir putin and mr. trump spoke by phone for 30 minutes and covered a range of issues, according to the kremlin. <u+201c>trump demonstrated a readiness not just to normalize relations (with russia), but to develop them fairly intensively in all directions, including the economy,<u+201d> yuri ushakov, a kremlin foreign policy aide, said, according to interfax. mr. ushakov said ukraine had been discussed briefly and that mr. trump<u+2019>s stance on the issue was unclear as yet. write to laura mills at laura.mills@wsj.com
moscow reaching out to trump<u+2019>s team to discuss syria, interfax reports  - wsj
laura mills