Putin envoy Dmitriev, Trump envoy Witkoff meet in Washington

Dmitriev, a Stanford-educated former Goldman Sachs investment banker, is one of the most U.S.-savvy members of Russia’s elite, with close relations to some key members of the Trump team. He is the highest-ranking Russian official to travel to the U.S. on state business since Russia’s 2022 expanded invasion of Ukraine.

It was not clear what Dmitriev discussed with the U.S. officials.

But his visit comes after President Donald Trump expressed his frustration with the pace of ceasefire talks, saying on Sunday he was “pissed off” with Putin and raising the possibility of imposing sanctions on those who buy Russian crude. Russia is the world’s second largest exporter of crude after Saudi Arabia.

Steve Witkoff, a Trump envoy who has taken the lead on the Trump administration’s contacts with the Kremlin, invited Dmitriev to the United States last week, said the U.S. officials. The White House directed the State Department to issue a short-term license for Dmitriev to travel to the country, a necessary step as Dmitriev faces U.S. sanctions, the officials said.

Dmitriev may be key in repairing relations that were, until Trump’s January inauguration, the worst between Moscow and Washington since the most dangerous junctures of the Cold War.

The Russian envoy played a role in early contacts with the U.S. when Trump was first elected president in 2016, as well as in building relations with Saudi Arabia, which led to an oil price agreement under the expanded OPEC+ producers’ forum.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration notably did not include Russia on an expansive list of countries that will face major new tariffs. Ukraine was slapped with a 10% levy, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

Trump has expressed frustration with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who he said was trying to renegotiate a minerals deal.

Over recent weeks, Dmitriev has mentioned a host of initiatives in which Russia and the United States could work together, from investment, rare earths and energy to the Arctic, space and cooperation with Elon Musk.

Reporting by Erin Banco and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington and Gleb Stolyarov in Moscow; Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Writing by Gram Slattery; Editing by Ros Russell

Erin Banco is a national security correspondent focusing on the intelligence community. She covers everything from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to U.S. covert operations overseas. She previously worked at POLITICO as a national security reporter. Banco has a long history covering the Middle East region, from Cairo to Baghdad to Aleppo where she’s reported on the Arab Spring and its aftermath, including the civil war in Syria and the rise of ISIS. Her 2017 book, Pipe Dreams, focuses on the development of the oil and gas industry in the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq. Banco attended The University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she majored in Arabic and journalism. She earned a master’s in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2014.

Humeyra Pamuk is a senior foreign policy correspondent based in Washington DC. She covers the U.S. State Department, regularly traveling with U.S. Secretary of State. During her 20 years with Reuters, she has had postings in London, Dubai, Cairo and Turkey, covering everything from the Arab Spring and Syria’s civil war to numerous Turkish elections and the Kurdish insurgency in the southeast. In 2017, she won the Knight-Bagehot fellowship program at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. She holds a BA in International Relations and an MA on European Union studies.