Kremlin envoys on Thursday praised the Trump administration for hearing “Russian position on many issues” after a two-day meeting in Washington.
Envoy Kiril Dmitriev met at the White House on Wednesday with Steve Witkov, a senior aide to President Trump on Russia's negotiations.
Dmitriev, President Vladimir V. Putin, head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund and special representative for investment and economic cooperation, said he held more meetings on Thursday without identifying them “with key members of the Trump administration.”
He said he discussed economic issues and argued that there was a “great desire for American companies to return to Russia.” He also said he discussed “potential cooperation in rare earth metals, the Arctic and various other sectors.” He then said Russia is working to recover direct flights to the United States, which banned Russian planes from airspace after Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Dmitriev, who speaks in Russian, spoke to Dmitriev, who speaks in Russian, according to a video of his comments distributed by the Russian press. “But in our understanding there are processes and dialogues that will help us overcome these differences.”
US officials did not immediately comment on the content of the consultation.
Dmitriev arrived in Washington with two aides on Tuesday, and he and Witkov met at the White House Wednesday afternoon, US officials said. The two officials continued speaking in the evening.
The talks were seen as the latest step in Russia's efforts to improve relations with the US. The settlement appeared to be hanging in the balance after Trump told Putin last weekend that the Russian president had made it in Ukraine.
Dmitriev's visit came despite being imposed on him by the Biden administration, which described him as a “known Putin ally.” There was also a meeting as Trump removed Russia from the country's list that was hit by sudden tariffs announced Wednesday.
A Washingtonian said the Treasury had suspended sanctions against Dmitliff for seven days for him to visit, and the State Department gave him a travel exemption and a visa.
The White House National Security Council presented questions about the State Department's visit Thursday morning, and the State Department introduced the White House to the question.
Dmitriev, a 49-year-old former banker who studied at Stanford and Harvard University and worked at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, has emerged as Putin's key envoy in the Kremlin's efforts to develop a close relationship with Trump.
Dmitriev's message, tailored to Trump's financial mindset, was that the US was supposed to benefit from its close ties with Russia.
In February, Dmitriev worked with Witkov to help mediate the prisoner exchange that led to the release of Mark Vogel, an American teacher who was imprisoned in Moscow.
A few days later, in consultations with Saudi Arabia's Witkov and other American officials, Dmitliv alleged that US companies had suffered a loss of $324 billion from withdrawing from Russia after Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Dmitriev said in an early social media post Thursday that his meeting was to restore US-Russia dialogue. The relationship was “completely destroyed under the Biden administration,” he writes, and the United States can benefit from cooperation “in international affairs and the economy.”
Dmitriev did not say whether he discussed negotiations on the war in Ukraine between Moscow and Washington. These talks seem to have been a fierce run these days after Putin rejected Trump and Ukraine's proposals during the 30-day ceasefire.
But Dmitriev's visit showed that the Trump administration continues to reverse the Biden administration's diplomatic isolation in Russia.
In another indication of continued involvement between Washington and Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov said this week that preparations for a second round of consultations aimed at ease the work of US and Russian diplomats operating in each of their countries is underway.
US and Russian officials met for the first time in Istanbul on February 27 for consultations over the long-standing TAT restrictions that cut off Russian American missions and US Russian missions to skeleton staff.
“We can see signs of progress and the willingness of our US partners to lift these obstacles to the usual work of diplomats in their respective capitals,” Lavrov said.
