Putin's Special Envoy Dmitriev in US for Talks

Top U.S. and Russia envoys plan to meet in Miami on Saturday, despite talks having taken a downward turn this week.

Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special presidential representative for investment and economic cooperation, is flying to Florida to meet with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, a White House official confirmed to POLITICO.

But after Trump announced last week that he and Putin agreed to a second summit in Budapest, he put Secretary of State Marco Rubio in charge of preparing for the meetings. Those plans quickly stalled following a call between Rubio, who is far more of a Russia hawk than Witkoff, and his Russian counterpart on Monday.

With Trump soon departing for Asia, Witkoff is again on the front lines of negotiating. Dmitriev, as the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, has particular interests in establishing further U.S.-Russia business relations.

The meeting comes after a series of tense exchanges that culminated in Trump issuing a package of sanctions against Russia, marking a drastic change in his foreign policy approach that had so far focused on verbally coaxing Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

The sanctions hit two of Russia’s oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, and resulted in outrage from the Kremlin, with Putin calling it an “unfriendly act.”