Washington — Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, described on Sunday a three-and-a-half hour meeting he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month, part of what he said was a “trust-building” assignment given to him by President Trump.
Witkoff traveled to Moscow to bring home Marc Fogel, an American who had been serving a 14-year sentence in Russia for traveling with medical marijuana. Russia freed Fogel on Feb. 11. Witkoff told a conference last week that he met with Putin before leaving the country with Fogel.
Appearing on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Witkoff said there were two translators at the meeting with Putin, and he was the only U.S. official present. He said he was “intent on carrying a message from the president to President Putin” and that he was told that the Russian leader “had something for me to transmit back to the president.”
“The meeting ended, I looked at my watch and it was close to three and a half hours that we were in there. And hopefully that suggests that a lot of good things got accomplished,” Witkoff said.
A real estate investor and friend of Mr. Trump’s who has taken an outsized role in his foreign policy, Witkoff noted that Mr. Trump believes that “trust-building begins with good, proper communication.”
“We just had a great discussion, me and President Putin, and now it will be up to President Putin and President Trump to work something out, and I think they’re going to be successful,” Witkoff said.
In addition to his trip to Moscow, Witkoff also joined Russian and U.S. representatives at a meeting in Saudi Arabia last week, where the officials agreed to begin working toward an end to the war in Ukraine and related economic opportunities, though no Ukrainian officials were present.
Witkoff said the officials did not discuss lifting American sanctions on Russia, but he noted that if a peace deal is reached, “there would be an expectation” that American companies could return to the country to do business.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has argued that Ukraine should give something to the U.S. in return for the American aid the country has received, pointing to U.S. interest in Ukraine’s rare minerals. And the president has escalated a public feud with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in recent days, calling Zelenskyy a “dictator.” Preparations are underway for a meeting between Mr. Trump and Putin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister told state media on Saturday.
Witkoff said the president’s agenda is “to end this carnage,” adding that the war in Ukraine “didn’t need to happen, and it doesn’t need to continue.”
“So we’re on it at his direction,” Witkoff said. “And I think there is, you’re going to see some real positive developments in the near-term future.”
