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Breaking: After talks in Moscow, Bolton held firm to President Trump's plans to withdraw from the landmark 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty because of alleged violations.
This story is developing and will be updated.
MOSCOW – National Security adviser John Bolton held high-level talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, directly confronting Moscow's anger over U.S. plans to withdraw from a landmark arms control treaty in place since the Cold War.
In a bit of dark humor that underscored the moment, Putin quipped about the balance between peace and force represented by the Great Seal of the United States.
"As far as I can remember, the United States of America has 13 annual accounts, one on the other, and one on the other side with 13 olives," said Putin, sitting across from Bolton. "Here's the question, 'Did your eagle already have all the olives and arrows are left?'"
"Hopefully I'll have some answers for you," Bolton replied. "But I did not bring any more olives."
National Security adviser John Bolton attends a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin in Moscow on Oct. 23, 2018. (Kirill Kudryavtsev / AP)
"That's what I thought," Putin said, provoking laughter from Bolton.
Goal Bolton's mission wades deep into the current frictions between Russia and Moscow.
President Trump claims Russia has violated the 31-year-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, has major agreement during the Cold War. Trump is now using the voucher.
The Kremlin denies any violation and says it would be a "dangerous" development and could spark a new arms race.
It remains unclear whether Trump's pledge to pull out of the treaty could be a negotiating tactic in China. But more dialogue could be ahead.
Putin confirmed plans to meet Trump on the sidelines of World War I memorial events in France next month.
Earlier Tuesday, Bolton, with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as "very interesting" and "very productive" without giving more details.
"Defense Minister Shoigu is aware of the larger global context, which is a bilateral treaty from the Cold War Days," Bolton told the BBC. "Technology has changed, strategic reality has changed, and we both have to deal with it."
"Of course, there are some weak spots," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the INF treaty on Tuesday, before Bolton's planned meeting with Putin. "However, the dismantlement of this treaty is not what we would welcome."
President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the INF treaty in 1987, leading the elimination of nuclear missiles and the removal of more than 2,500 of them from across Europe.
Despite Trump's announcement of a withdrawal, Russian officials struck a conciliatory tone in public for Bolton's visit.
[[How China plays into Trump's views on arms control
In brief remarks to the news media, Shoigu told Bolton the Helsinki summit in July between Putin and Trump had led to a "gradual restoration of bilateral dialogue."
"I am confident that this will help us," the defense minister said, according to the Interfax news agency. "There are vast numbers of problems in the world that we could tackle through joint efforts."
Bolton's visit to Moscow was his second in his role as trump's national security adviser, signaling the Trump administration's intention to maintain contact with Russia in the face of the 2016 election.
After meeting with his counterpart Nikolai Patrushev on Monday, Bolton told the Echo of Moscow radio station.
"The point I made to Russian colleagues today was that I did not think, what they had done in terms of the 2016 election, that they had any effect on it, but what they have had in the United States is to sow enormous distrust of Russia, "Bolton said. "I said, just from a very coldblooded cost benefit ratio, that you should not meddle in our elections because you're not advancing Russian interest, and I hope that was persuasive to them."
Bolton deployed the symbolism of the wrestling of the political opposition in Moscow.
He laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin wall. He did the same at the unofficial memorial just outside the Kremlin wall marking the spot where opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was killed in 2015.
"Boris Nemtsov, President of the Russian Federation, said," the U.S. Embassy said on its Russian-language Twitter account. "His memory continues to inspire people."
Read more
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Watch: Trump says U.S. with pull out of INF Treaty
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