Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitiev, met with US officials in Washington on Wednesday, while the Trump government continues to press Russia and Ukraine for a ceasefire, two US officials said.
Dmitiev, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker formed in Stanford, is one of the US Russian elite’s most experienced US members, with close relations with some important members of the Trump team. He is the level of traveling to the US to state businesses since the Ukraine invasion of Russia in 2022.
It was unclear what Dmitiev discussed with US authorities.
But his visit occurs after President Donald Trump expressed his frustration with the pace of ceasefire negotiations, saying on Sunday (30) that he was “upset” with Putin and raising the possibility of imposing sanctions on those who buy Russian gross oil. Russia is the world’s second largest exporter of gross oil after Saudi Arabia.
Steve Witkoff, a Trump envoy who took the lead in Trump government contacts with Kremlin, invited Dmitiev to the United States last week, US officials said. The White House instructed the State Department to issue a short -term license for Dmitiev to travel to the country, a necessary stage, as the Russian envoy faces sanctions from the US, authorities said.
Dmitiev may be essential to notice a relationship between Washington and Moscow, who, until Trump’s inauguration in January, had been through the worst moment since the Cold War.
The Russian envoy played a role in the first contacts with the US when Trump was first elected president in 2016, as well as in the construction of Saudi Arabia relations, which led to an agreement on the price of Opep+Oil Producers forum.
On Wednesday, the Trump government did not include Russia in one that will face. Ukraine was punished at a rate of 10%, according to a newsletter released by the White House.
Trump expressed frustration with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was trying to renegotiate a mineral agreement.
In recent weeks, Dmitiev has mentioned a series of initiatives in which Russia and the United States could work together, from investments, rare land and energy to the Arctic, space and cooperation with Elon Musk.
