Moscow and Washington seek to restore bilateral ties and pave the way for a settlement of the Ukraine conflict
Negotiations between high-level delegations from the United States and Russia on Ukraine, at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. © Sputnik
Top Russian and US diplomats are holding talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to find a way to restore diplomatic relations, set the stage for a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, and pave the way for resolving the Ukraine conflict.
The Russian delegation is led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and includes Yury Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, and Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). The American side is represented by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and Steve Witkoff, the special envoy for the Middle East.
Neither Ukraine nor the EU is attending the meeting, with Kiev signaling that it won’t recognize the results of the talks unless it is included.
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18 February 2025
08:47 GMT
Major US oil companies could “at some point” return to doing business in Russia, RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev has told the New York Times. “We believe at some point they will be coming back, because why would they forego these opportunities that Russia gave them to have access to Russian natural resources?”
- 08:10 GMT
RDIF head Dmitriev believes that Russia and the US could cooperate on a number of Arctic projects. “The Biden administration has spread a lot of disinformation… Our dialogue [with the Trump administration] allows us to show the truth that the Russian economy is developing at a good pace. We also need to work on joint projects, for example, in the Arctic and other areas,” he said.
- 07:55 GMT
Russia and the US could make progress in talks in two or three months, Dmitriev has said, without elaborating further. He went on to praise the Trump administration, noting that unlike Biden’s team, it is willing to listen to Moscow.
- 07:55 GMT
The policies of former US President Joe Biden undermined global confidence in the dollar, RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev said, adding that Western sanctions have helped shape Russia into a more independent nation. According to Dmitriev, the resumption of dialogue with the US proves that the West’s policy of deterring Moscow has failed.
- 07:43 GMT
TASS news agency showed a photo from the talks including members of the Russian delegation seated in front of their US counterparts.
© TASS
- 07:32 GMT
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, and RDIF chief Kirill Dmitriev have arrived at the negotiations, according to a video shared by the Foreign Ministry.
- 07:22 GMT
The Russia-US talks will take place in Diriyah Palace belonging to the Saudi royal family, with the delegations expected to arrive soon.
- 07:14 GMT
The EU will have to “pony up” for Ukraine’s restoration at the demand of the United States, Nikolay Patrushev, a top aide to President Vladimir Putin, has said. In an interview with Russian daily Aif, he stated that the bloc got what it deserves, given that “the main culprits of the destruction in Ukraine are the EU countries, who recklessly finance the Ukrainian armed forces.”
- 07:03 GMT
The EU has been essentially excluded from talks over the future of Ukraine because it has failed to invest the appropriate amount of money into the military, Armin Papperger, the chief executive of the German defense company Rheinmetall, told the Financial Times. Rheinmetall has been one of the key enterprises supplying Ukraine with military equipment.
“If you don’t invest, if you’re not strong, they handle you like kids… If parents have dinner, the kids have to sit at another table. The US is negotiating with Russia and no European is at the table – it has become very clear that the Europeans are the kids.”
- 06:46 GMT
A Ukrainian drone attack on a major oil pumping station in southern Russia, which is linked to US companies, is a deliberate challenge from Kiev to Washington ahead of talks in Saudi Arabia, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said.
Medvedev compared the raid with an attack of an “animal on its master.”
“The overfed fat brute pounced on its owner, who paused the feeding and even began to think about butchering the annoying animal. And then, out of desperation, the brute decided to bite its owner and hurt him more. Dripping with sticky saliva, it grabbed the hand of its feeder. The hand of the President of the United States,” he said.
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