High-ranking U.S.
and Russian authorities satisfied in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to talk about possible solutions to end the war in Ukraine and bilateral relations in addition to a prospective top in between U.S.
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.Notably absent from the talks were any authorities from Ukraine.Heres an introduction of who was seated at the negotiating table in Riyadh: Russian delegationForeign Minister Sergei LavrovRussian Foreign Ministry/TASSLavrov, Russias foreign minister since 2004 who has actually been called the frowning face of Russian diplomacy, is now dealing with his fifth U.S.
presidential administration.The 74-year-old is rumored to have actually tried to retire numerous times however to no avail.According to the Financial Times, Lavrov, like lots of top authorities, was apparently not even notified of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine until 1 a.m.
on Feb.
24, 2022.
On Monday, Lavrov ruled out territorial concessions to Ukraine, stating that concessions were made to Ukraine throughout the Soviet age, when it was given territories that had been established by Russian individuals for centuries.Lavrov likewise stated he saw no point in having Europe at the negotiating table.
I do not understand what they [European officials] would do at the negotiating table ...
if they are going to sit at the negotiating table with the goal of continuing war, then why invite them there?In December 2024, Lavrov claimed that Moscow would oppose the implementation of Western peacekeeping forces to Ukraine as part of any settlement to end the almost three-year conflict.Yury UshakovYury Ushakov (left) and Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergei Naryshkin (right).
Mikhail Metzel/ TASSUshakov has actually been a foreign policy aide to Putin given that 2012.
He formerly acted as Russias ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Russian ambassador to the U.S.
and deputy chief of the government staff.Ushakov has been involved in Russian diplomacy across the globe, discussing and attending meetings connected to BRICS, Ukraine, East Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.In February 2022, he called U.S.
warnings about an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine hysteria, which the circumstance had actually reached the point of absurdity.Following Ukraines August 2024 Kursk incursion, Ushakov stated that peace talks would not be possible, however didnt totally rule them out.
No, they [the proposals] have actually not been canceled.
At this point, of course, it would be totally unsuitable to get in into any kind of negotiation process, stated Ushakov.On Monday, Ushakov called the state of mind towards the talks in Riyadh businesslike.Kirill DmitrievKirill DmitrievAP/TASSDmitriev has served as the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russias sovereign wealth fund, since 2011.
The Kyiv-born graduate of Stanford and Harvard worked for both Goldman Sachs and McKinsey after graduation.Investigative outlet IStories reported that Dmitriev went back to Russia in 2000 to work as deputy general director at IBS, then as financial investment director at Delta Private Equity, a division of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund developed under Bill Clinton.When asked in 2012 if he often compared Russia and Ukraine, Dmitriev stated: The democratic concept in Ukraine has actually been mainly discredited specifically since of the Orange Revolution, since Orange Democracy is associated there with turmoil and increased corruption.Dmitrievs wife, Natalia Popova, is a close friend and university schoolmate of Katerina Tikhonova, Putins alleged daughter.
Popova is Tikhonovas deputy at the Innopraktika technology foundation.Dmitriev might be best understood for the RDIF-bankrolled Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V.
According to the independent news outlet Meduza, Dmitriev was one of the very first individuals to check the vaccine on himself.
He reportedly recommended the name Sputnik V and also gotten exclusive export rights for RDIF.According to Reuters, Dmitriev participated in the settlements for last weeks U.S.-Russia detainee exchange together with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).
A source informed Meduza that Dmitrievs role was not that of a mediator, however merely to assist in contact.Dmitriev was discovered to have met with Trump donor and Blackwater PMC creator Erik Prince in January 2017 to establish a link in between Trumps governmental shift team and Moscow.
That exact same month, Dmitriev met with Trump consultant Anthony Scaramucci at the World Economic Forum in Davos.Vladimir Proskuryakov and Dmitry BalakinInvestigative outlet Sistema, a joint project between Radio Liberty and Current Time, identified 2 other men on the Russian side of the table as Vladimir Proskuryakov and Dmitry Balakin.Proskuryakov works in the Russian Embassy in Canada and focuses on Arctic affairs.
The outlet keeps in mind that he took part in a St.
Petersburg State University conference on issues in the region.Balakin works as deputy director of the Foreign Ministrys department for pan-European cooperation.U.S.
delegationSecretary of State Marco RubioAnna Moneymaker/Getty Images/AFPRubio, a former U.S.
senator from Florida, hailed a brand-new era in U.S.
diplomacy that left from idealistic dreams and was instead based on core U.S.
interests following Trumps election victory in November.He has actually applauded Ukraine for withstanding Russia, however stated the U.S.
is moneying a fatal stalemate war that needs a sound judgment technique that needs to be given a conclusion.Were lying to people when we inform them youre going to have the ability to go to Congress and get $60 billion every 10 months.
Thats simply not sensible, he stated in an interview.He stated this month that he anticipates to reach an offer for Ukraines mineral wealth that will in part compensate the U.S.
for cash that went to weapons to prevent Russia which the U.S.
has a stake in Ukraines long-lasting self-reliance.
Steve WitkoffEvelyn Hockstein/ Pool Photo through AP/ TASSA industrial property tycoon and golf partner of Trumps, Witkoff has actually taken a popular role in the administrations efforts to end the war in Ukraine regardless of being Trumps envoy to the Middle East.Witkoff is the creator and chairman of his namesake business, a business real estate advancement business with a portfolio of high-end hotels, houses and business structures, mainly in Manhattan however also in Los Angeles and Miami.He was a significant fundraising event for Trumps re-election project, consisting of from Jewish citizens after the Biden administration paused the shipping of bombs to Israel.In December, Witkoff checked out Saudi Arabia and fulfilled MBS the very first conference in between the Saudi crown prince and a member of Trumps administration to talk about a mega-deal in between the U.S.
and Saudi Arabia and a peace contract with Israel.Witkoff has also been involved in negotiating the ceasefire in between Israel and Hamas.
In January, he checked out Gaza, a rare visit by a senior U.S.
official, and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization.He was greatly associated with a prisoner exchange offer recently that paved the way for the Feb.
12 call between Trump and Putin.
He flew to Moscow and returned with locked up U.S.
teacher Marc Fogel, becoming the first known senior Trump administration authorities to fly to Russia.
Fogel discussed Witkoffs energy and can-do mindset as he thanked individuals involved in securing his release.Mike WaltzMike WaltzAP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein/TASSTrumps nationwide security advisor has actually backed military support for Ukraine but more recently called for ending the war through diplomacy.The very first Army Green Beret elected to the U.S.
Congress, Waltz was likewise a defense policy director to Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates and recommended President George W.
Bush on military policy.Just after Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, Waltz backed military help for Kyiv and the repair of its pre-2014 borders.
He required enabling Ukraine to make offending strikes on Russia using U.S.
weapons.
He also backed a World War II-era lend-lease program to assist Ukraine, secondary sanctions on China for helping Russia and eliminating Russia from the UN Security Council.By September 2023, Waltz said the period of blank checks for Ukraine was over and called for Europe to contribute more to its security.
He likewise slammed the Biden administration for not clarifying the U.S.
objective in Ukraine.In a Nov.
2 viewpoint piece in The Economist, Waltz worried the requirement to end the war and desert Bidens technique of supporting Ukraine as long as it takes.
Rather, he stated, the U.S.
should focus on China.Waltz has stated that the U.S.
has leverage on both sides of the Ukraine-Russia dispute, with implementing energy sanctions and increasing weapons products to Kyiv with fewer limitations called as mechanisms to pressure Russia.