Kremlin aide and former Russian ambassador to the United States, Yuri Ushakov, described the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff, an envoy of former U.S. President Donald Trump, as “useful and constructive.”
According to Ushakov, the two sides exchanged messages: “Russia received certain signals from Trump and responded with some of its own,” he told reporters, without elaborating on the content of the exchanges, as reported by The Guardian.
Ushakov also said that Putin and Witkoff discussed the possibility of developing a “strategic partnership” between Russia and the United States.
Earlier, the American envoy was seen walking through Zaryadye Park near the Kremlin alongside Kirill Dmitriev, Russian presidential envoy for investment and economic cooperation.
Meanwhile, in a separate development, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said in a statement that Russia had targeted an energy facility overnight that serves as part of the route linking Greek LNG terminals with Ukrainian gas storage sites via the Trans-Balkan pipeline.
In another incident, a man has been arrested in Russia on suspicion of treason, allegedly for providing U.S. intelligence services with satellite technology secrets.
A court in Kaliningrad announced on Wednesday that the suspect, identified only by an initial, was previously employed at a company that manufactures electric motors for space satellites.
Authorities claim he collected data on the company’s technologies on behalf of U.S. intelligence services from July 2021 to December 2023. If convicted, he faces a possible life sentence.
