Kremlin confirms Putin meeting with Trump envoy
Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting with Steve Witkoff, special envoy for US President Donald Trump, in St. Petersburg, the Kremlin has announced.
RT filmed Putin welcoming Witkoff earlier at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library in the city center.
Speaking with journalists before the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the duration of the talks would be flexible and could take “an hour, or two, three or four; as long as President Putin requires.”
Peskov cautioned against expecting a breakthrough from the negotiations, but outlined what topics might be discussed, including normalization of bilateral relations, a possible in-person meeting between the two presidents, and the Ukraine conflict. For Moscow, he said it would be an opportunity to share its concerns directly with a trusted Trump representative.
Witkoff is a confidant of Trump, whom he has tapped as his representative in the effort to mend the rift with Russia. The meeting with Putin will be Witkoff’s third since February, when he successfully negotiated a prisoner exchange which Washington and Moscow described as a trust building gesture. He was also part of a high-level US delegation that met Russian officials in Saudi Arabia last month for discussions on the Ukraine conflict.
Last week, Witkoff met with Russian presidential aide Kirill Dmitriev in Washington. The head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund advises Putin on international economic cooperation and was spotted in the morning walking out of a hotel in St. Petersburg alongside Trump’s envoy.
