President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev at the White House on Wednesday, sources told CBS News.
Dmitriev is the first Russian official to visit the White House since the first Trump administration, as no Russian officials made the trip during the Biden presidency. Multiple sources confirmed to CBS News that the Treasury Department temporarily lifted sanctions so that the State Department could issue the necessary visa for him to travel here.
Witkoff, initially appointed as Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, has emerged as a key negotiator in the new administration. He previously met with Dmitriev as well as other high-level Russian officials in Riyadh in February for a round of ceasefire talks, three years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Witkoff also traveled to Russia in February, which resulted in the release of American Marc Fogel.
Witkoff told Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” on Feb. 23, shortly after that trip, that he spent over three hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin in what he described as a “great discussion.”
After Witkoff’s meeting in Moscow, Reuters reported that Dmitriev, who is the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said the Russians expect a number of American companies to return to Russia this year. Witkoff told Brennan that he did not have that specific discussion with Putin, but “obviously there would be an expectation that if we get to a peace deal, that you would be able to have American companies come back and do business there.”
Wednesday’s meeting between Witkoff and Dmitriev comes just days after Mr. Trump told NBC News he was “very angry” and “pissed off” at Putin for comments he made suggesting Ukrainian President Zelesnkyy was not a legitimate leader. “I was pissed off about it. But if a deal isn’t made, and if I think it was Russia’s fault, I’m going to put secondary sanctions on Russia,” Mr. Trump said.
