A second round of talks between Russia and the U.S. was "constructive," the U.S. State Department said after delegations from both sides concluded discussions in Istanbul lasting nearly six hours. The Russian delegation was headed by Aleksandr Darchiyev,

U.S. and Russian delegations held talks in Istanbul on Thursday on normalising the work of their diplomatic missions after the war in Ukraine triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.

The United States reiterated its concerns about the Russian Federation’s policy prohibiting the employment of local staff, which is the key impediment to maintaining for stable and sustainable staffing levels at the US Embassy in Moscow,