Moscow, Feb. 27 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia and the US are ready to step up cooperation.

Addressing the annual meeting of the Federal Security Service Board, Putin said that initial contacts with the Donald Trump administration have given rise to hope that issues like the Ukraine conflict can be resolved.

The Russian president also said that Russia and the US wanted to establish cooperation but that some Western elites were seeking to undermine their dialogue. He emphasized that "accumulated systemic and strategic problems in the global architecture" had provoked the Ukrainian and other regional crises at the time.

"We all see how rapidly the world is changing, the situation in the world. In this re...