Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and his press secretary Dmitry Peskov (left), Photo: “Kommersant
The Kremlin said that the dialogue with Donald Trump’s team is going “very well”, but stressed that it should not expect immediate results due to the “damage” caused to relations under President Joe Biden, Reutersreports.
“Everything is going very well,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Russian television. According to him, contacts are taking place at several levels – through the Foreign Ministry, intelligence services and Putin’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
Peskov acknowledged that the talks would require “serious and painstaking work”. He also did not rule out a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin, but noted that it would take more time.
At the same time, Trump himself, who calls himself a “peacemaker,” said that the situation with Ukraine must move forward: “There’s a time when you either act or you don’t talk.” His special envoy, Steve Witkoff, held a four-hour meeting with Putin in St Petersburg.
Against the backdrop of the talks, Trump is increasingly voicing rhetoric that echoes the Kremlin’s – that the war in Ukraine is a proxy conflict between the US and Russia.
Ukraine and European leaders emphasise that the Russian invasion is an attempt at imperialist takeover and demand Russia’s defeat on the battlefield. Moscow, in turn, presents the conflict as a “fight against the decaying West” and NATO expansion.
