On the Russian side of the talks may be active Yuri Uszakov, abroad Policy Advisor Vladimir Putin with many years of diplomatic experience and Sergei Naryszkin — his erstwhile KGB associate and now manager of abroad Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation. This information was communicated to Bloomberg by people acquainted with talks in the Kremlin.
They added that Kiril Dmitriev, manager of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, who made contact with Trump's administration during his first presidency could besides play an crucial role.
77-year-old Uszakov has served as Putin's abroad Policy Advisor since 2012, and from 1998 to 2008 he was an ambassador to the United States. Naryszkin serves as manager of abroad Intelligence Service and is simply a permanent associate of the safety Council. Both were active in peace talks held with the Ukrainian side shortly after the Russian invasion of 2022.
Dmitriev in turn, according to 1 of Bloomberg's sources, was active in talks about exchange of American teacher Marc Fogel, released from prison this week, where he was serving a 14-year conviction for importing marijuana he needed for medical reasons. This was suggested, among others, by Steve Witkoff, peculiar envoy of U.S. president Donald Trump for the mediate East, who helped Fogel return to the US. He told journalists that a “gentleman from Russia” named Kiryl played an crucial function in this exchange.
Pragmatic Game
Dmitriew, who was educated in finance in the United States, made a career in the private equity industry, . He started with an "American-Russian investment fund". He has extended contacts in an global business environment. At the planet economical Forum in Davos just before the COVID-19 pandemic he boasted that Russia, which was then subject to pre-war sanctions, had learned to deal with it without western partners, building close business ties with Iran and Saudi Arabia.
After a telephone conversation with Putin Trump, he said peace negotiations may take place in Saudi Arabia. “One conversation can change the course of history. present the leaders of the USA and Russia may open the door to a future based on cooperation alternatively than confrontation," Dmitriew said in a conversation with the “Financial Times”.
Russia tries to play more pragmatically and wants individual who can “run business talks” with Trump's team," said Bloomberg, global safety specialist Emily Ferris, an older worker of the Royal United Institute of Defence Studies.
Trump team
As far as the American side is concerned, experience in negotiations has 67-year-old Steve Witkoff — although he has led them so far in a business environment. The billionaire was active in the real property and investment industry. He played a key function in reaching a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. late Trump extended the powers of a peculiar envoy to the mediate East to participate in talks about the war in Ukraine.
Members of the negotiating squad mentioned by Trump may besides include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA manager John Ratcliffe, and National safety Advisor Michael Waltz.
— The Russian squad may find themselves in a hard situation, dealing with an unpredictable interviewer in Trump's person, whose unspeakable ideas and periodic outbreaks of militant behaviour clearly contrast with the line of the erstwhile administration, says Ferris. “ This puts Russia in an awkward position to rethink scenarios that she may not have considered before,” she says.
At a later phase of talks, the Russian negotiating group may be joined by persons who were part of a delegation negotiating the ceasefire in the spring of 2022. However, they will mostly talk to representatives of Ukraine. Among them may be president Vladimir Medinski's advisor," said Bloomberg a individual close to the Kremlin.
