President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday for the first time since declaring relations between Washington and Moscow at an all-time low. 
 
 The White House said the U.S. and Russian leaders will speak on the phone at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. They last spoke a month ago, when Mr. Trump called Mr. Putin following a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg. 
 
 Their discussion on... ||||| Russian President Putin To Meet Merkel, Talk To Trump By Phone 
 
 Vladimir Putin on Tuesday meets with Germany's chancellor for the first time in two years. Their relationship was strained after Russia's intervention in Ukraine. Putin then speaks to President Trump. 
 
 DAVID GREENE, HOST: 
 
 No Western leader knows Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, better than German Chancellor Angela Merkel. And their relationship has been difficult. You think about Ukraine. You think about the sanctions on Russia. You think about the conflict in Syria. Well, today, Putin will greet Merkel in the resort town of Sochi. That's a resort town he loves. It is where the 2014 Winter Olympics were held. And this is Merkel's first visit to Russia in two years. NPR's Lucian Kim is in Moscow and joins us. Good morning, Lucian. 
 
 LUCIAN KIM, BYLINE: Good morning, David. 
 
 GREENE: So why this Putin-Merkel meeting and why now? 
 
 KIM: Well, I think you could actually ask why has it taken so long? Yeah, Merkel has really reduced her contacts with Putin to a minimum. She's really been focused on finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine which has largely disappeared from the headlines. Her official reason for coming now to Russia is to prepare for the G20, the Group of 20 major economies summit in Germany in July. But, of course, the timing is really important. 
 
 The European Union today is looking probably more vulnerable than it has ever. And Putin is looking like the most stable leader in the region. So I think it's kind of a recognition that you need to talk to Russia if you want to solve any problems. 
 
 GREENE: That is amazing to have arrived at that point where European countries feel like Putin is the most stable potential ally. So that's really what Merkel's trying to get from Putin, some sort of promise that he's going to work with Europe in a progressive way, in a productive way? 
 
 KIM: Well, maybe not as an ally, but, I mean, he's not going away. He's been, you know, in power since 2000. The only other leader is Merkel that's been around that long. But I think it's - it's, as I said, it was more - it's more of a recognition that you're going to have to deal with him if you're going to reach a resolution in Ukraine or in Syria. He has become the indispensable leader. And I think that's why Merkel is also - is going and is ready to talk to him. 
 
 GREENE: How do Russians view this meeting? Do they want Putin to get closer to leaders like Merkel in the West? 
 
 KIM: Well, I think for Russians it's very important or for Putin it's very important to be seen as someone who is a major player. So by speaking to Merkel, that obviously helps him. And he's really been on a roll. He just spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Abe last week. And tomorrow, he's going to meet the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Sochi, as well. So I think this - the international buzz around him definitely helps him because it shows that Russia is a player that the rest of the world cannot ignore. 
 
 GREENE: Well, and speaking of that, I mean, he has - Putin also has a phone call with President Donald Trump later today. How does that all fit into his diplomacy? 
 
 KIM: Well, that's really key. I mean, what's interesting is that it's coming after the Merkel phone call. And, you know... 
 
 GREENE: The meeting, yeah. 
 
 KIM: ...A lot of the - exactly. And a lot of the same issues are - affect the U.S.-Russian relations. That's Ukraine, Syria, terrorism. And under Obama, Merkel handled a lot of the European relations. So it's going to be interesting if Trump will also farm out, you know, dealing with Putin to Merkel. 
 
 GREENE: OK, speaking to NPR's Lucian Kim in Moscow about some diplomacy that Vladimir Putin is taking part in today, including a phone call with Donald Trump. Lucian, thanks so much. 
 
 KIM: Thank you. 
 
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 MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will speak by phone on Tuesday, RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. 
 
 Trump will speak with Putin on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. EDT, the White House said on Monday night. 
 
 A senior Trump administration official said the two leaders would likely discuss the civil war in Syria, where Moscow backs the government of Bashar al-Assad and the United States supports rebels trying to overthrow him. ||||| U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have spoken together by telephone for the third time since Trump took office in January. 
 
 The scheduled phone conversation on May 2 was the first between the two leaders since the United States carried out a missile strike against a Syrian air base in retaliation for what Western countries charged was a chemical-weapons attack against civilians by Syrian government forces. 
 
 A White House statement described the conversation as "a very good one" -- including discussions on the war in Syria, "working together to eradicate terrorism throughout the Middle East," and "how best to resolve the very dangerous situation in North Korea." 
 
 The White House also announced that Washington will send a representative to Syria peace talks scheduled in Astana, Kazakhstan, on May 3 and 4. 
 
 A Kremlin statement said the emphasis of their phone conversation was on coordinating Russian and U.S. actions in the fight against terrorism. 
 
 It said the two agreed to increase dialogue between U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an attempt to bring a resolution to the war in Syria. 
 
 Moscow also said Trump and Putin both expressed support for the idea of organizing their first face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the July 7-8 summit of the Group of 20 (G20) in Hamburg, Germany. 
 
 On North Korea, the Kremlin said Putin called upon Trump to show restraint and make an effort to reduce tensions that have been raised in the aftermath of North Korea's nuclear-weapons and ballistic-missile tests. 
 
 Several hours before their phone conversation, Putin met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Russian Black Sea port of Sochi for talks focusing on the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, as well as on strained bilateral relations. 
 
 Both leaders said after their May 2 meeting that it is essential for all parties to fulfill their commitments under the Minsk process to regulate the conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed separatists. 
 
 "Today we once again reiterated the necessity of the strict observation of the Minsk agreements by the parties to the conflict [in eastern Ukraine]," Putin told journalists. 
 
 Merkel said Moscow and Berlin "are of differing opinions about the cause of the conflict." She said it was essential for Kyiv to regain complete control of its border, including the portion between the separatist-controlled areas and Russia. 
 
 Putin and Merkel also discussed the six-year-old civil war in Syria. Putin repeated Russia's calls for an "impartial investigation" into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria's Idlib Province last month that left about 80 people dead. 
 
 Putin also said Russia was counting on the United States to help find "efficient solutions" to the conflict in Syria. 
 
 Merkel said she spoke to Putin about domestic developments in Russia, including the arrests of demonstrators at recent anticorruption rallies and media reports about the persecution of homosexual men in the Russian North Caucasus region of Chechnya. 
 
 "The possibility of the right to demonstrate is a part of civil society," Merkel said. 
 
 She also urged Putin to "use his influence" to put an end to the abuse of homosexuals in Chechnya. 
 
 Russia's Novaya Gazeta reported in April that at least 100 gay men had been abducted by security forces in Chechnya and at least three had been killed. 
 
 Putin defended the actions of Russian police, saying they acted within the framework of the law and showed "far more restraint than their colleagues in other European countries." 
 
 Putin also categorically rejected allegations that Moscow interfered in the U.S. presidential election in November or was playing any role in Germany's domestic politics. 
 
 The Russia leader said it was "unthinkable" that Russia would interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries. He dismissed the reports of interference in the U.S. election as "rumors." Putin added that Moscow would not tolerate outside interference in its own domestic affairs. 
 
 In January, the U.S. intelligence community issued an assessment charging that Putin "ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election." Security agencies in Germany, France, and other countries have also alleged Russian efforts to influence their electoral processes. 
 
 For her part, Merkel said she was confident Germany could handle any disinformation campaigns and would take "decisive measures" in the event of interference. She also noted that "hybrid warfare plays a role in Russia's military doctrine." 
 
 The two leaders also discussed preparations for the G20) summit in Hamburg on July 7-8. The G20 is now the chief format for Russia to meet the other world powers after its exclusion from the Group of Eight (G8), which is now the G7. 
 
 In addition to his talks with Merkel, Putin is scheduled to talk by telephone with U.S. President Donald Trump later on May 2. 
 
 Merkel's one-day trip was her second visit to Russia since Moscow seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014. 
 
 Russia and Germany have scaled back ties and Merkel has strongly backed EU sanctions on Moscow for seizing Crimea and for its involvement in the war that has killed more than 9,900 people in eastern Ukraine since 2014. 
 
 A key mediator in the conflict, which pits Russia-backed separatists against Ukrainian government forces, Merkel is a major proponent of keeping the sanctions on Moscow in place until a stalled peace plan is fulfilled. 
 
 Merkel has attended several meetings with Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and France's Francois Hollande aimed at implementing the Minsk II agreement, which she and Hollande brokered in February 2015. 
 
 The most recent such meeting was held in October and the four leaders spoke by phone in April, agreeing to step up implementation of the peace deal. 
 
 With reporting by dpa, AP, TASS, and Reuters
– President Trump has an important phone call on his docket Tuesday: He'll be speaking with Vladimir Putin at 12:30pm Eastern. The talk comes less than a month after Trump said US-Russian relations "may be at an all-time low," notes the Wall Street Journal. The most recent tension flared when the US accused Moscow of lying about a chemical attack on civilians in Syria, and Reuters expect Syria's civil war to be a topic of discussion. Trump and Putin have spoken twice by phone since Trump took office, notes Radio Free Europe, which adds that the two leaders have not scheduled a face-to-face meeting. Both are expected to attend the G20 summit in Germany in July. Before talking with Trump, Putin will host German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Black Sea city of Sochi. It's their first meeting in two years, with ties strained in the wake of Russia's military action in Ukraine, reports NPR.