OREANDA-NEWS  Representatives of the United States and Russia will hold talks in Istanbul this week to discuss the normalization of the embassies, the US State Department said on Tuesday.

"On April 10, the U.S. and Russian delegations will meet for the second time in Istanbul to try to make progress in further stabilizing the work of the diplomatic missions of both countries," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said at a briefing.

She noted that the Ukrainian issue was "not on the agenda" of this meeting.

Also, according to Bruce, the delegations will not touch on political and security-related topics.