Trump: When Vitkoff went to Moscow, he knew nothing about Russia and little about Putin and politics

President of the United States Donald Trump recognized that when his special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow for the first talks, he knew nothing about the Russian Federation and little about Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and politics. The American leader told this to during the performance in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.

Commenting on Witkoff's role in the peaceful settlement between the Hamas terrorist group and Israel, Trump described how he organized a meeting with Putin for the special envoy, thinking it would last 15-20 minutes.

"Steve had no idea about Russia, didn't know much about Putin, didn't know much about politics, wasn't very interested in it. He was a real estate professional. But he had the quality that I was looking for and that I didn't see very often," the US president said.

According to him, half an hour after the meeting started, he called to ask if Steve had finished and found out that he was still in talks with the Russian dictator.

Trump said that he called an hour, two hours, three hours later, and on the fourth call he was told that Steve would soon leave the negotiations.

"And five hours later he came out. I said: "What the hell did you talk about for five hours?" And he replied: "We just talked about a lot of interesting things." Including why he went there (to resolve the Russian war against Ukraine – Ed.). But you can't talk about it for five hours, you can talk about it for a certain amount of time, and you know what you're going to get. But this is a talent. It's a talent when you can do it," the US president said.

• Witkoff is a billionaire investor and real estate developer who is a close friend of the US president. Although he is Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, in February 2025 he will visited Moscow to meet with Putin and exchange prisoners. After this visit, he also began to publicly engage in negotiations with the aggressor country.
• In the spring, Witkoff became known for his scandalous statements. For example statedsaid that the key issue in the war is five Ukrainian regions, mentioning the occupiers' illegal "referendums" in them and calling these territories "Russian-speaking". In response, president Zelenskyy said that the recognition of the occupied territories is red line and that the special envoy "adopted the strategy of the Russian side".
• According to Reuters' sources, in April, Witkoff told Trump that the fastest way to achieve a ceasefire would be to give Russia the right to four Ukrainian regions where Moscow held pseudo-referendums in 2022.
• Already in August, after meeting with Witkoff, the head of the OP Yermak said that The US is not putting pressure on Ukraine regarding possible concessions of territories in favor of Russia.