Putin called Obama

Reuters photographer

VVP.

This was the first time the two leaders spoke in four months.

Putin reportedly brought up the spread of the Islamic State's influence n the Middle East. Ultimately, the two leaders agreed to have Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the US' Secretary of State John Kerry met to further discuss the issue.

They also had a "detailed" discussion regarding the situation in Syria and the Iranian nuclear problem. Russia and the States have not seen eye-to-eye with either of the two cases.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two leaders also discussed the on-going Ukraine crisis.

American officials told the New York Times that Obama "focused on the continuing separatist war in Ukraine fomented by support from Moscow and pushed Mr. Putin to abide by a shaky diplomatic agreement known as the Minsk accord."

REUTERS

According to the Kremlin, the two leaders agreed that US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasian will soon be in touch to discuss the fulfillment of the Minsk agreement.

"American officials hope Mr. Putin may see the rise of the Islamic State as enough of a threat to now be willing to apply pressure on Mr. Assad, but they also suspected his renewed interest in the issue may be a way of distracting from Ukraine," according to the New York Times.