The leaders further covered the humanitarian situation in Syria and joint Russia-US efforts on this issue within the UN Security Council, according to the statement. While addressing reporters in Washington, President Biden said his phone conversation with President Putin “went well”, TASS News Agency reported. “I made it very clear to him that the US expects, when a ransomware operation is coming from his soil, even though it’s not sponsored by the state, we expect them to act if we give them enough information to act on who that is. And, secondly, that we have set up a means of communications now, on a regular basis, to be able to communicate to one another when each of us thinks something is happening in another country that affects the home country. And so, it (the phone conversation) went well. I’m optimistic,” he added.

The phone call was the first since the two heads of state had their in-person meeting in Geneva on June 16.