Putin made Witkoff and Kushner wait several hours for their meeting — Bloomberg
On September 5, Vladimir Putin made Donald Trump’s special envoys wait several hours for a meeting at the Kremlin. According to Bloomberg, the Russian dictator was demonstrating his power in the run-up to the Russian State Duma elections.
Before the meeting at the Kremlin, Witkoff and Kushner spent several hours having lunch at an expensive Moscow restaurant with Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s adviser on investment and economic cooperation. Only then did the dictator receive the delegation for talks that lasted more than three hours. The agency’s sources claim that Putin wanted to demonstrate his power within Russia ahead of the State Duma elections, scheduled for September 18–20. According to their assessments, trilateral talks involving Kyiv may resume only after the elections, but are unlikely to bring the parties any closer to a peace agreement.
Source: Bloomberg
Zelenskyy told Witkoff that he would not cede any territory to Russia under any circumstances.
Following the meeting in Kyiv, Witkoff announced peace talks in the Ukraine-Europe-U.S. format.
In addition to issues regarding the cessation of hostilities and security guarantees, the parties discussed the country’s postwar recovery and the mobilization of resources for reconstruction, as well as economic guarantees intended to prevent the war from breaking out again.
