MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. The meeting that Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff are expected to hold on January 22 will be their seventh meeting.
They have already held five conversations at the Kremlin, and the Russian leader once hosted the US envoy in St. Petersburg. In addition, Putin and Witkoff met during the Russian-US talks in Alaska, where the envoy was part of US President Donald Trump’s delegation.
According to Witkoff, he plans to travel to Moscow on Thursday, arriving late in the evening. The envoy added that he would be traveling alongside businessman Jared Kushner.
Putin-Witkoff meetings
The first time Witkoff visited Moscow was on February 11, 2025. He was the first American politician to travel to Russia after Trump's return to the White House. His goal was to bring back Marc Fogel, a US national convicted in Russia on drug smuggling charges and pardoned by the Russian president. Witkoff later told CBS News that while in Moscow, he had held a meeting with Putin. However, the Kremlin did not comment on that.
Witkoff came to Moscow for the second time on March 13 and was received by the Russian head of state. The Kremlin press service did not disclose the topics of their conversation. Witkoff remarked that the talks, which had lasted three to four hours, were positive. Putin gave Witkoff a portrait of Donald Trump to deliver to the US president as a gift, depicting the latter after the assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024.
Steve Witkoff visited the Russian city of St. Petersburg on April 11, where he held talks with Kirill Dmitriev, Russian special presidential envoy for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries and director general of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), and once again met with Putin. According to the Kremlin press service, their conversation focused on various aspects of the Ukrainian settlement.
The US politician’s fourth visit to Russia took place on April 25, with Putin hosting him at the Kremlin. Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov stated that the conversation was "constructive and quite useful," making it possible to bring Russia’s and the US positions closer, with regard not only to Ukraine but also to a number of other international issues.
On August 6, Witkoff made his fifth visit to Russia to meet with Putin again. Ushakov told reporters that Russia "sent some signals related to the Ukraine issue," and received similar signals from President Trump.
On August 16, Putin traveled to Alaska to meet with his US counterpart. Witkoff was part of the delegation that accompanied Trump to the talks.
Following the Alaska summit, Witkoff visited Russia on December 2. He was accompanied by Kushner. According to Ushakov, the parties had the chance to discuss in detail the prospects for further joint efforts to achieve a long-term peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis. In particular, they discussed various aspects of Washington’s peace plan, specific territorial issues, and the prospects for future economic cooperation between the two countries.