Russian contacts with Witkoff are very productive, Putin envoy says
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was extremely productive but various countries are trying to disrupt dialogue between Moscow and Washington, Putin’s investment envoy said.
Putin received Witkoff in the former imperial capital of St. Petersburg on Friday and they spoke for close to five hours. Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, and investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev were also in the room.
“The meeting was extremely productive,” Kirill Dmitriev told reporters in the Kremlin during a visit by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani to Moscow.
“A lot of people, structures, and countries are trying to disrupt our dialogue with the United States,” Dmitriev said, adding that various unidentified media were spreading misinformation.
“There is a very useful dialogue going on. It is certainly going on in very difficult conditions – constant attacks and constant misinformation.”
After the meeting with Putin, Witkoff told Fox News that it had become clear what Putin wanted for a permanent peace in Ukraine.
“I think that we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large,” Witkoff told Fox, adding that there were also some “very compelling commercial opportunities” in the Russia-U.S. relationship.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
