The special envoy of the White House, Steve Witkoff, has arrived this Wednesday in Moscow, to meet with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The visit occurs two days before it expires, this Friday, announced by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to Russia to stop the war in Ukraine or face sanctions, both against the aggressor country and its commercial allies.
Russia’s special representative for negotiations with the USA, Kiril Dmiteriev, has received Witkoff at Vnúkovo airport in Moscow and subsequently have taken a walk near the Kremlin walls, reports the Russian agency Tass.
“If the deadline arrives and Russia has not accepted the fire, there will be sanctions. But (Moscow) seems quite good to avoid them. They are cunning people, quite skilled to dodge them,” Trump added on Monday. Along these lines, the United States ambassador to NATO, Matt Whitaker, declared this weekend to the Newsmax medium that his government will punish Russia with tariffs and devastating sanctions on August 8. ” As of that date, he said, “Russia will not have friends. You will not have commercial partners. And your ability to finance this war will end.”
A source familiar with the Witkoff agenda told Reuters in Washington on Tuesday that the special envoy would meet with Russian leaders on Wednesday. The Kremlin has said that he could meet with President Vladimir Putin, but has not confirmed it. Both have gathered in previous visits. Between February and April, Witkoff had visited Russia four times to meet with President Vladimir Putin and other authorities, in the middle of a remarkable approach between Trump and the tenant of the Kremlin who seemed to leave kyiv at the foot of the horses.
Trump is increasingly frustrated with Putin due to the lack of advances towards a peace agreement in Ukraine and has threatened to impose strong tariffs on countries that buy Russian exports. In this sense, it is exerting special pressure, which together with China is a large Russian oil buyer.
The Kremlin states that the threats of penalizing the countries that trade with Russia are illegal. Three sources close to the Russian president say that Putin is unlikely to give to Trump’s ultimatum of sanctions because he believes he is winning the war and his military objectives have priority over his desire to improve relations with the United States.
“Witkoff’s visit is a last attempt to find a solution that allows both parties to save appearances. However, I do not think there is any commitment between the two,” says Gerhard Mangott, Austrian analyst and a member of a group of western academics and journalists who have gathered regularly with Putin over the years.
“Russia will insist that you are willing to accept fire, but (alone) under the conditions it has formulated during the last two or three years,” he said in a telephone interview granted to Reuters. “Trump will be pressed to comply with what he has announced: to increase tariffs to all countries that buy oil, gas and, probably, also uranium to Russia.”
Putin has been skeptical about the impact that more American sanctions will have after the successive waves of economic sanctions for three and a half years of war. According to sources from his near circle, the Russian leader does not want to anger Trump and is aware that he may be wasting an opportunity to improve relations with Washington and the West, but his war goals are more important to him.
In this sense, given the growing American pressure, Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, said Monday that a meeting between its president, Vladimir Putin, and the Ukrainian leader, Volodimir Zelenski said Monday. The only condition, according to Peskov, is that experts from both presidents meet previously to prepare the summit. The tone has changed in Moscow, which, claiming that it would be possible if it provides results: that is, if the meeting serves to confirm that Russia has achieved the objectives of its invasion.
Lack of experience
Witkoff, without diplomatic experience before joining the Trump team in January, has been entrusted with the task of looking for the high fire in the Wars of Ukraine and Gaza simultaneously, as well as negotiating in the crisis on the Iran nuclear program.
Those who criticize him describe him as someone who is not up to it when he faces a face -to -face negotiation with Putin, which Russia has led the last 25 years. On his last visit in April, Witkoff, without accompaniment of diplomats or advisors, offered a lonely image, sitting in front of Putin, Dmiteriev and the foreign policy advisor of the Kremlin, Yuri Ushakov.
Witkoff has even been accused of echoing the Kremlin narrative. In an interview with the journalist Tucker Carlson in March, he said that there was no reason why Russia would like to absorb Ukraine or seize more territory, and that it was “absurd” to think that Putin would like to send his army to march through Europe.
Ukraine and many of its European allies warn otherwise. Putin denies any intention over the Territory of NATO, and Moscow has repeatedly described those accusations as proof of European hostility and “Russophobia.”
