Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev told the Berliner Zeitung, in an exclusive on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg forum, that he will meet with U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner later this month. The channel is warm at both ends: Zelensky spoke with Witkoff and Kushner by phone June 8 about a settlement, calling the conversation “very positive,” and Dmitriev had met the pair in Florida in March for talks he called “productive.” The Berliner Zeitung notes that this diplomacy had stalled since February, when, in the paper’s words, “the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran.”
Dmitriev also offered Germany an alternative future: “The combination of German technology, the Russian people, and Russian resources would be a powerful force.” Spurning Russian energy, he said, has raised German industry’s energy costs 30–40%: “Industrial enterprises are leaving Germany. We have the feeling that a lot of effort has been made to divide us.”
