Putin's envoy meets US delegation in Florida as Washington mulls easing Russia sanctions
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Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev held talks with representatives of U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on March 11, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announced.
The meeting comes as the Trump administration is considering easing sanctions on Russian oil to lower global oil prices, which have spiked sharply since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February.
Dmitriev, a top economic adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, headed a Russian delegation at the talks in Florida, Witkoff said. The U.S. team consisted of Witkoff, Jared Kushner (Trump's son-in-law and frequent envoy), and White House Senior Advisor Josh Gruenbaum.
"The teams discussed a variety of topics and agreed to stay in touch," Witkoff wrote on social media.
The delegates did not disclose the topic of the negotiations.
The meeting comes on the heels of a March 9 phone call between Trump and Putin, during which the Russian president reportedly proposed his ideas for resolving the war in Iran.
Though Russia has allegedly provided Iran with intelligence to assist in targeting U.S. forces in the Middle East, Trump has dismissed these reports.
Russia has already started to see the benefits of the war's disruption to global energy markets. The U.S. has eased sanctions on India, allowing the country to import more Russian oil, and has signaled additional restrictions will be lifted to stabilize prices.
The war in Iran has also stalled U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, with the next round of trilateral talks postponed indefinitely amid the spiraling conflict.
Witkoff and Kushner are Trump's lead negotiators in the peace talks. Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, has played a key role in Moscow's outreach to Washington. He is also the architect of the initial U.S.-backed 28-point peace plan that demanded sweeping concessions from Ukraine.
