Kirill Dmitriev says Moscow\u2019s engagement with Trump\u2019s team is ongoing, dismissing claims that negotiator Steve Witkoff\u2019s influence has waned<\/p>\n
Moscow and Washington continue to engage based on the agreements reached at the Alaska summit, despite earlier reports that US special envoy Steve Witkoff had lost influence within the administration of President Donald Trump, Russian presidential aide Kirill Dmitriev has said.
\nThe Alaska meeting in August marked the first face-to-face encounter between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2019. The discussions centered on ending the Ukraine conflict and restoring relations between Washington and Moscow. Both leaders described the talks as productive, although no breakthrough was achieved.
\nFollowing the summit, Witkoff \u2013 a New York-based businessman and Trump\u2019s special envoy for peace missions, as well as his main negotiator on Ukraine and the Middle East \u2013 faced criticism in Western media over his lack of diplomatic experience and failure to broker a deal.
\nWriting on his Telegram channel, Dmitriev, who took part in the Alaska discussions, rejected reports that Witkoff\u2019s standing in Washington had weakened.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAs the chief architect and negotiator behind Trump\u2019s Gaza plan, which Russia also supported, Witkoff retains and has significantly strengthened his key role,\u201d Dmitriev said following the envoy\u2019s involvement in brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that included a large-scale hostage exchange.
\nHe described the Witkoff\u2019s approach as pragmatic and said the dialogue between Moscow and Trump\u2019s team \u201ccontinues on the basis of agreements reached at the Alaska summit.\u201d
\nLast week, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said the agreements reached during the mid-August summit do not sit well with Ukraine and its European backers \u2013 \u201cthose who do not want the Ukraine crisis to be resolved peacefully.\u201d However, he emphasized that \u201cthis does not mean they are not working.\u201d
\nRussian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday that the \u201cpowerful impetus\u201d for peace created by the Alaska summit had been extinguished, primarily by European \u201csupporters of war.\u201d
\nPutin has previously defended Witkoff, saying he \u201caccurately conveys both Moscow\u2019s and Washington\u2019s positions\u201d and represents \u201cthe position of the American president himself.\u201d He added that criticism of the envoy can only come from those \u201cnot in favor\u201d of Trump or his approach to Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kirill Dmitriev says Moscow\u2019s engagement with Trump\u2019s team is ongoing, dismissing claims that negotiator Steve Witkoff\u2019s influence has waned Moscow and Washington continue to engage based on the agreements reached…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t