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A top Russian negotiator said his country and the United States are having "good discussions" to end Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine after more than three years of fighting.
Kirill Dmitriev, a close advisor to Putin and CEO of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), met Wednesday with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Washington, D.C.
RDIF and Dmitriev were placed under sanctions by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in February 2022, just days after Russia’s full-scale invasion began.
The Treasury Department temporarily waived sanctions on the Russian envoy so the State Department could give him a visa to enter the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) CEO Kirill Dmitriev in Moscow on April 2, 2021. ((Photo by ALEXEY DRUZHININ/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images))
Dmitriev praised the Trump administration for making "tremendous progress" in peace negotiations and took aim at the Biden administration for reportedly not engaging with Russia in an interview on "Special Report."
"There was no trying to understand [the] Russian position," he said. "There was no really solutions that could have been successful and what President Trump[‘s] team has done — they understood what the solution space may be and they achieved the first de-escalation ever in the conflict, which is stopping hits on energy infrastructure between Russia and Ukraine."
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Russia has repeatedly violated the energy ceasefire since it was agreed to in mid-March.
In this photo provided by the National Police of Ukraine, firefighters work to extinguish a fire after a Russian attack at an apartments' buildings area in the town of Uman, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, April 28, 2023. (National Police of Ukraine via AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Tuesday post on X that his country shared information with the United States, indicating all of Russia’s violations, including a drone attack in Kherson on an energy facility and equipment.
Dmitriev said Ukraine has also violated the energy infrastructure ceasefire but claimed it’s not being covered a lot in Western media.
President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs Wednesday at the White House on his self-proclaimed "Liberation Day," targeting close allies and more than 180 countries and territories with so-called "reciprocal" tariffs. Most notably, Russia was not on the list.
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WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 02: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a "Make America Wealthy Again" trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. Touting the event as "Liberation Day", Trump is expected to announce additional tariffs targeting goods imported to the U.S. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier that neither Russia nor Belarus were included on the list of tariffed countries because the U.S. doesn’t trade with them, and they are sanctioned.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, however, found in 2024 that the United States’ total goods trade with Russia was an estimated $3.5 billion.
Dmitriev said Russia not being on the tariff list was a "technical issue" for the Trump administration as Washington and Moscow work to further peace talks and reestablish ties and partnerships.
The Stanford University grad suggested future economic collaboration as well as a potential deal in rare earths and minerals.
Drag-line excavator mines rare earth materials on Ukrainian soil on February 25, 2025 in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine. ((Photo by Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images))
Dmitriev maintained that Putin wants to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine and claimed Russia is not making any preconditions on sanctions relief as part of a ceasefire agreement.
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The Kremlin said in late March that it would not implement a ceasefire in the Black Sea until the United States lifts sanctions on Rosselkhozbank, a Russian state-owned agricultural bank, and other unspecified financial organizations, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington D.C.-based research group that closely monitors the shifting frontlines in Ukraine.
Ashley Carnahan is a writer at Fox News Digital.
