Russia hopes to decide soon about a potential summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, the RIA news agency cited a Russian deputy foreign minister as saying on Wednesday.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov were expected to hold talks on Wednesday night, amid a push to agree a presidential summit.

The Kremlin will consider the “behaviour” of the US before deciding whether to agree to the meeting, according to RIA. The Biden administration is hoping to improve dire ties with the former Cold War foe.

The New York attorney general’s office has suggested its criminal investigations into the Trump Organisation will be done in conjunction by the Manhattan district attorney’s office – which has been probing the business empire for two years. So what has district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. been looking at?

– Investigators having been looking at whether the Trump organisation inflated property values to obtain loans and lowered values to reduce its taxes.

– Investigators have deposed chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and other Trump officials as part of their inquiries – including Eric Trump.

– Investigators have been examining financial dealings at several Trump properties – including Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago, Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles.

Donald Trump is yet to respond to the big news on New York’s criminal investigation. But he has urged Republicans to not support the creation of a 9/11-style commission for investigating the US Capitol attack.

The House today votes on the Democratic-backed proposal, which would see a committee investigate Trump’s role in spurring on the riots.

“Republicans in the House and Senate should not approve the Democrat trap of the January 6 Commission,” the statement from Trump said.

“It is just more partisan unfairness and unless the murders, riots, and fire bombings in Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, and New York are also going to be studied, this discussion should be ended immediately,” he said.

Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen responded to the big news about New York’s criminal investigation by sharing a photoshopped photo of his old boss behind bars.

“As more documents are reviewed by the NYAG and NYDA, it appears that the troubles for Donald Trump just keep on coming! Soon enough, Donald and Associates will be held responsible for their actions,” Cohen told Reuters in a text message on Tuesday night.

Cohen has already been interviewed by the Manhattan district attorney’s investigators, sources have said.

The US Senate primary in Ohio is still a year away, but Republican contenders already are working furiously to cast themselves as Trump’s favourite in the open race.

Ohio’s Democratic US senator Sherrod Brown said: “The five Republican candidates for Senate are like kids on a playground sticking their tongue out and saying Donald Trump loves me more than he loves you,” he said.

More on the Trump-loving contenders here:

The House is poised to vote on a 9/11-style commission on the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol – a first step toward creating an independent, bipartisan panel that would investigate the siege and try to prevent it from happening again.

While the measure is expected to be approved Wednesday by the House, a commission will likely be a more difficult sell in the Senate. The Republicans there signalling that they will try to block or at least slow down the effort.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said that he is “pushing the pause button” on the legislation to form the commission.

While controlling the Senate, Democrats would need at least 10 GOP votes to pass the measure under Senate rules.

The New York Attorney General’s office has said it is expanding its civil probe into Donald Trump’s business empire, and that it is now “actively investigating the Trump Organisation in a criminal capacity”.

The attorney general’s office – already conducting a civil investigation of Mr Trump’s company – suggested that the probe is in conjunction with an ongoing criminal investigation on him by the office of Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

“We have informed the Trump Organisation that our investigation into the organisation is no longer purely civil in nature,” Fabien Levy, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said in a statement.

The civil investigation has been probing whether the Trump Organisation manipulated property values to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits.

A separate investigation by Manhattan’s Mr Vance has been looking into similar allegations over the business dealings done during Trump’s pre-presidency period spanning about two years.