Russia is offering the Trump administration a deal on Russian natural resources and access to the Arctic, The Moscow Times reported on Feb. 18, citing Kirill Dmitriev, one of the Russian delegates in recent Saudi Arabia talks.
A Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met on Feb. 18 with a U.S. delegation led by State Secretary Marco Rubio, marking the highest-level meeting between the two sides since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russian and the U.S. delegates in Riyadh also discussed economic cooperation, including global energy prices. Moscow is suggesting that American oil companies may return to the country and is interested in joint projects with the U.S. in the Arctic, Dmitriev said before the talks started.
The statement comes as Kyiv announced it is not ready to sign the U.S.-proposed deal on Ukraine's natural resources. President Volodymyr Zelensky commented that Ukraine is open to investment but argued that the memorandum, presented by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Feb. 12, needs more work as it does not include any concrete security guarantees.
"We believe that at some point, they (American companies) will come back because why would they start giving up the opportunity to access Russian natural resources that Russia gave them?" Dmitriev said, adding that large American oil companies had "very successful businesses" in Russia.
"We should also do joint projects, including, for example, in the Arctic and other areas. Joint projects will allow us to be more successful," Dmitriev added.
U.S. companies allegedly lost $300 billion from sanctions against Russia, and Joe Biden's administration "gave a lot of wrong messages" about the state of the Russian economy, Dmitriev claimed.
Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, only one major U.S. company, Exxon Mobil, was producing oil in Russia. The company also owns 30% of the Sakhalin 1 oil project. Following the imposition of sanctions against Sakhalin 1, Exxon Mobil tried to sell its stake but failed, according to The Moscow Times.
After the outbreak of the all-out war, the leading American oilfield service companies, including Halliburton, Schlumberger, and Baker Hughes, also announced their withdrawal from Russia.
Russia is also expecting the U.S. to unfreeze Russian state assets, including those owned by the Central Bank, which were previously invested in American ones. The assets are valued at about $6 billion, the outlet reported.
Altogether, nearly $300 billion of the Central Bank's foreign exchange reserves have been frozen, of which over $200 billion are in Europe.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly assured European allies that the U.S. would maintain sanctions against Moscow at least until an agreement is reached to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Yet, following talks between the U.S. and Russian delegations, Rubio suggested that lifting sanctions against Russia would be part of any peace process, saying that "concessions" would have to be made by "all sides" to bring an end to "any conflict."
Dmytro Basmat
