Russians and Trump team meet in Riyadh – CNN
Pravda Ukraine
Kirill Dmitriev, a member of the Russian delegation, has said he had already met with representatives of US President Donald Trump’s team in Saudi Arabia. An official meeting between the parties is scheduled for Tuesday.
Source: CNN, which spoke to Dmitriev
Quote from Dmitriev: “All I can say is they’re [Trump representatives – ed.] great problem-solvers. And I think President Trump is a great problem-solver.”
Details: According to Dmitriev, the US negotiators have not yet made any direct promises to their Russian counterparts.
“I think the promise is: let’s have dialogue, let’s figure out the best solution for our countries, for other countries, for the global community,” the Russian representative said.
He also denied that Russia is primarily seeking to ease the sanctions imposed on it and argued that the US and Russian economies could benefit from working together.
“I think it’s very important to build bridges. I think US-Russia relations are very important for the world,” Dmitriev said.
CNN, citing sources, said the Kremlin suggested that Dmitriev focus on restoring economic ties between the US and Russia while the two sides try to conclude a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Background:
- Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia would send Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, Russian ruler Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy advisor, to the meeting with US representatives in Saudi Arabia.
- It was reported earlier that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had already arrived in Saudi Arabia on 17 February, where talks between the US and Russian delegations on resolving the war in Ukraine are to take place.
- The Axios news outlet said that the meeting between Russian and US representatives will take place on 18 February.
- On 16 February, Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that no meeting with the Russians would be planned until a plan to end the war was developed.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was not aware of the meeting in Saudi Arabia and expressed concern that the plan for the meeting was developed outside Kyiv’s control.
- Earlier, Bloomberg reported that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is assembling a team of heavyweight negotiators with decades of experience in high-level diplomacy to engage with representatives of the US president, who is seeking to broker a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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