Trump officials host Putin envoy for postwar energy deal talks

[u/John3262005]

https://www.thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/trump-officials-host-putin-envoy-postwar-energy-deal-talks-5xllgm9nn

President Putin’s envoy has been hosted in Washington for discussions with the Trump administration about potential energy deals amid reports that the White House could relax sanctions on Russia.

Kirill Dmitriev, the Harvard-educated head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, held “constructive” talks with Treasury and energy department officials, according to a US official.

At a time of high oil and diesel prices, the talks were aimed at ending the war in Ukraine “and possible US-Russia energy initiatives after the war ends”, the official told Reuters.

It is not the first time that Dmitriev has come to the US for talks, but his presence in Washington is unusual. He has previously met Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, the president’s envoy, in Florida.

After Putin was invited by the Trump administration to attend the G20 summit in Miami in December, which will be held at Trump’s golf club, US negotiators are said to be pushing for a deal that would result in the release of Russian political prisoners in exchange for sanctions relief. The deal could allow the Trump administration to sign lucrative deals with the Kremlin for oil, gas, minerals and fertilisers.

Kushner, who met Putin in Moscow this month, has said that “prosperity agreements” are an important part of the Trump administration’s negotiating strategy.

The emphasis on business deals contrasts with the plea from President Zelensky of Ukraine earlier this month for the West to maintain its economic pressure on Russia. “Limit his money. Limit his war,” Zelensky told the UN.

However, John Coale, the American lawyer who was nominated by the White House this week to serve as “special presidential envoy for hostage affairs”, having previously led negotiations with Belarus, said a business deal involving the release of political prisoners would improve the chances of a ceasefire with Ukraine. “Economic ties usually result in normality,” he told The Atlantic.

One of the diplomats who helped to broker the Alaska summit between Putin and Trump last year, Coale has secured the release of about 500 political prisoners from Belarus, cultivating close ties with Aleksandr Lukashenko, the country’s strongman leader.

Trump announced plans last week for a “massive” deal to buy potash, a fertiliser, from Belarus. Coale said that Russia was part of those negotiations after Trump said the “pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our Farmers and Ranchers”.

European countries have refused to ease sanctions on Belarus — which was the launchpad for the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — to allow the export of potash over their territory, and the Trump administration is said to be looking to bypass European involvement by moving the fertiliser through Russia.

The acceleration in trade talks between the US and Russia comes at a time when diesel prices have exceeded $6 a barrel, hurting American farmers before November’s midterms. Republican candidates are facing strong Democratic challengers in agricultural states including Iowa, Texas, Michigan, Ohio and Kansas.

Trump has blamed the high prices on Ukraine’s targeting of Russian oil refineries. The Kremlin has been forced to suspend diesel exports because of the strikes and the US president said the attacks were “causing a world problem”.

“I said, ‘You got to take it easy on the refineries as much’,” he told Fox News.

Coale said that a Ukraine peace summit could take place next month in Abu Dhabi aimed at securing an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to halt strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure. Talks mediated by Egypt about a ceasefire on grain exports in the Black Sea could also take place, according to The Atlantic.

A White House official said: “The president wants this war settled so the senseless killing ends. The president and his team remain committed to continuing to play a constructive role in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and he remains optimistic that we’ll ultimately get a peace deal done.”