On June 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be coming soon to Moscow. On the same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that Russia endorses U.S. President Trump’s peace proposal of August 15 of last year, and rejects that of Great Britain, Germany, and France, which he dismissed as no peace proposal at all.
Lavrov told reporters June 16, “We are committed to the agreements reached on August 15 last year in Alaska. President Putin repeatedly stated that he accepted President Trump’s proposal, and we certainly expect that the positions agreed upon based on the American proposal will be implemented. Yuri Ushakov, aide to President Putin, announced that we expect another visit from Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner in the foreseeable future. We will certainly expect them to report on how the American plan [will] implement the agreements based entirely on their proposal.”
The Russian Foreign Minister rejected the ‘proposal’ of the Europeans, stating that the Europeans seek to “issue ultimatums in the hopes that Russia will comply. President Putin has already spoken about this in his recent speeches at various events. They offer nothing new.”
In this context, Peskov informed reporters June 16, “The US negotiators will come soon, but there are no exact dates yet. You know, the Americans are currently focused on preparing for and signing the memorandum [with Iran] that has been agreed on. We have learned that the signing is expected to take place in Switzerland at the end of the week. It will probably be possible to discuss their Moscow visit after that,” he noted.
The possible Moscow visit by the US envoys had been brought up in the nearly one-hour June 14 phone call between Presidents Putin and Trump.
