The Scoop
A key Russian official heaped praise on Tuesday’s meeting between US and Russian officials, and said President Trump has entered talks with a “major drive” to end the war in Ukraine.
“The discussion was very positive,” the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, said in a brief interview at the Ritz-Carlton, Riyadh, where the talks are being held. “I think we are still far away from solutions. We just started dialogue. But the dialogue is based on people really engaging and understanding each other and understanding concerns — something that was amazingly lacking during the Biden Administration.”
“President Trump directed his team to engage in a very constructive conversation, a very positive conversation, and to and finish the Ukraine conflict as soon as possible,” he said.
Dmitriev, a key Russian economic official and a member of the delegation, declined to answer questions about the role in the talks of Europeans and the Ukrainian president, describing them as political and outside his remit.
“Russia and the US should be able to speak directly — that’s very important,” he said.
The “great conversation between President Putin and President Trump last week was really remarkable in starting this engagement process,” he said.
“There is a major drive by President Trump and his team to finish Ukraine conflict as soon as possible,” Dmitriev said. “We still have many differences, we have many different viewpoints on many things — but we are engaged, we are discussing.”
Dmitriev also singled out Trump friend and negotiator Steven Witkoff, praising his knowledge of history.
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Dmitriev also had warm words for the host of the summit.
“Everybody was very appreciative of Saudi Arabia’s role,” he said. “Being here, having two sides engaged in very positive, productive conversation and dialogue was very important and [the] Saudi side and [the] Crown Prince and his team created a very positive environment,” he said. The talks “couldn’t have been done in a more positive manner, and couldn’t have ben done without Saudi.”