Russian envoy Dmitriev signals progress toward peace talks, warns U.S. oil sanctions will backfire
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, and US special envoy Steve Witkoff are set to hold a meeting on Saturday in Miami, Florida, U.S. news outlet Axios reported.
Speaking to CNN after arriving in Washington for talks with U.S. officials, Dmitriev said on Friday that a meeting between Donald Trump and Putin had not been cancelled, as the U.S. president described it, and that the two leaders will likely meet at a later date.
The planned summit was put on hold on Tuesday. Trump said he cancelled the scheduled Budapest meeting with Putin because of a lack of progress in diplomatic efforts toward ending the war and a sense that the timing was off.
However, Dmitriev said, “I believe Russia and the U.S. and Ukraine are actually quite close to a diplomatic solution.”
The Russian envoy’s visit to the United States takes place against the backdrop of newly announced U.S. sanctions on two of Russia’s biggest oil companies – a move aimed at pressing Putin to end the war.
Despite the move, Dmitriev said dialogue between Russia and the United States will continue.
He declined to say who he was meeting and predicted that the U.S. oil sanctions would backfire.
“They will only lead to gasoline costing more at American gas stations,” Dmitriev said.
