Negotiations on peace in Ukraine with the Ukrainian side and Donald Trumpʼs team will be led by Russian Presidentʼs Assistant for Foreign Policy Yuriy Ushakov, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin, and Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev.
Bloomberg reports this, citing sources.
The publication calls the negotiators Putin is assembling "a team of heavyweights with years of negotiating experience".
Ushakov was Russiaʼs permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe from 1996 to 1998, and from 1998 to 2008, ambassador to the United States. From 2008 to 2012, he served as deputy chief of staff of the Russian government, and from 2012, as Putinʼs foreign policy aide. He participated in the 2022 negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul.
Naryshkin is a longtime acquaintance of Putin, dating back to the Leningrad Department of the KGB. He has headed the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service since 2016. He also participated in the 2022 negotiations with Ukraine.
Kirill Dmitriev heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund and sits on the board of Innopraktika, which is headed by Putinʼs youngest daughter Katerina Tikhonova. He is married to Tikhonovaʼs friend Natalia Popova, a friendship that has made him influential in the Kremlin, the Financial Times reported. Dmitriev, Reuters reported, citing sources, was involved in negotiations to release Mark Vogel, an American teacher who was sentenced in Russia and extradited to the United States this week.
According to Bloomberg, other members of the 2022 negotiating team may join the new talks later. They will mainly assist in negotiations with Ukrainian representatives, among them may be presidential aide Volodymyr Medinsky, the head of the Russian negotiating team in 2022.
The Russian team may be on the back burner when dealing with a more unpredictable the US President Donald Trump. His unconventional ideas and occasional belligerence are a sharp departure from the line of the previous Democratic administration.
- On February 12, Trump called Putin and then Zelensky. After that, Trump announced that he was starting negotiations to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.
- After that, speaking to reporters, Trump suggested that he might meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia. When exactly is unknown, but the meeting could take place in the “near future”. Trump also made it clear that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would participate in the talks. However, Zelensky is unlikely to be invited to the meeting.
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