SOCHI, Russia — Secretary of State John Kerry held more than four hours of talks on Tuesday with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, in what both sides depicted as a frank and cordial meeting aimed at reaching a common strategy to end the Syria war and defuse the Ukraine crisis.
Mr. Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov — who met separately for more than four hours beforehand — described the entire day of discussions as the beginning of a fresh dialogue that might lead to broader cooperation on regional crises.
Talk of isolating Russia because of its intervention in Ukraine appeared to have been relegated to a past chapter of relations. Instead, the emphasis was finding new ways to collaborate, particularly on Syria. Mr. Kerry expressed hope on that front that American and Russian officials would deliberate “with increased focus and purpose.
Despite the change in atmosphere, no concrete accomplishments were made public. Neither side announced initiatives to quell the fighting in Syria. Nor did they present a plan to stop the chlorine attacks that the United States and other Western nations believe the government of President Bashar al-Assad has carried out in recent months. But the tone of the meetings was different, largely devoid of the rancor and Cold War rhetoric that had increasingly framed relations between Russia and the United States over the past few years.
Still, it was far from clear that the American and Russia officials would reach agreement on the thorny issues on which Mr. Kerry now hopes to collaborate. On allegations of chemical weapons use, Mr. Kerry said the two sides would begin by exchanging information on the suspected attacks in Syria, while Mr. Lavrov stressed the importance of carrying out an international investigation.
On Ukraine, both sides insisted they supported the cease-fire agreement reached in February in Minsk, Belarus. And Mr. Kerry made clear that his warning about taking military action applied to the Ukrainian government as well as Moscow. But the Russians provided no hint that they were yet prepared to stop training separatists in eastern Ukraine or whether they would remove their troops.
On Iran, Mr. Lavrov said Mr. Kerry had not insisted that Russia refrain from selling the Iranians an advance air defense system, the S-300. Mr. Kerry said American concerns over the potential sale were well known, but acknowledged that Russia would not be violating any legal restriction.
Mr. Kerry was the highest-ranking American official to visit Russia since the start of the crisis in Ukraine. His trip began with a visit to a war memorial in Sochi, the site of the last Winter Olympics. He met with Mr. Putin at an ornate presidential residence after his talks with Mr. Lavrov at a luxury hotel.
The spokeswoman for the Russia Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, provided a glimpse of what was happening inside the talks, including Mr. Kerry’s desire to improve relations.
Ms. Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page that at the start of a working lunch Mr. Lavrov had given Mr. Kerry several baskets of plump tomatoes and fresh potatoes grown in Russia’s Krasnodar region. In return, she wrote, Mr. Kerry provided a list of critical reports in the Russian news media that “in his view did not reflect the real potential of broad Russian-American relations.
The State Department’s own social media messaging appeared to get ahead of events. It posted a Twitter message in Mr. Kerry’s name that hailed the “frank discussions the secretary had with Mr. Putin and Mr. Lavrov on Iran, Syria and Ukraine while the closed-door meeting with the Russian president was still underway. Mr. Kerry, however, later sought to reinforce the cordiality of that message, thanking Mr. Putin for giving him so much time.
The Syria conflict was a main topic, all the more urgent given the gains made by the Islamic State extremist group and the battlefield reversals suffered recently by Mr. Assad’s forces.
Further compounding the crisis were credible reports of attacks in Syria involving chlorine and possibly other chemical agents.
The United States and Russia drafted the 2013 agreement that required Syria to eliminate its chemical weapons arsenal and join the treaty that bans such weapons, which was later codified in a resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council.
Chlorine was excluded from chemicals to be eliminated. But its use as a weapon of war is still a violation of the treaty. The Assad government is the only Syrian party to the conflict that has the aircraft that witnesses say has dropped chlorine-filled barrel bombs. But the Security Council, where Russian wields a veto, has yet to assign blame.
Mr. Kerry’s visit also came amid deepening divisions between the sides over Ukraine. The Russia military has deployed about 10 battalions on Ukraine’s border, has moved SA-22 and SA-15 air defense systems into eastern Ukraine and continues to train separatists there.
It is not clear if the Russian military and the separatists it is backing are planning an offensive to seize more territory or if their moves are a tactic to force Ukraine to make political concessions. But the State Department asserted last month that Russia’s behavior violated the cease-fire agreement that European powers negotiated in February.
