White Home envoy Steve Witkoff has praised Vladimir Putin in glowing phrases as reliable and mentioned the Russian chief advised him he had prayed for his “friend” US President Donald Trump when he was shot.
Witkoff met with Putin over a number of hours final week in Moscow and advised US media the talks—which concerned discussions about forging a path in direction of ending Russia’s struggle in Ukraine—had been constructive and “solution-based.”
In an interview with right-wing podcast host Tucker Carlson, the envoy mentioned he has come to treat Putin as not a “bad guy,” and that the Russian president was a “great” chief searching for to finish Moscow’s lethal three-year battle with Kyiv.
“I liked him. I thought he was straight up with me,” Witkoff mentioned within the interview aired Friday.
“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it.”
He additionally described a “personal” aspect of the dialogue during which Putin recalled his response to the assassination try on Trump in July 2024 because the Republican held a marketing campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Putin “told me a story… about how when the president was shot, he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president,” Witkoff mentioned.
“Not because… he could become the president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend.”
Putin had commissioned a “beautiful portrait of President Trump from a leading Russian artist,” and requested the envoy to take it dwelling to Trump, Witkoff added.
“It was such a gracious moment.”
Witkoff’s gushing reward of a president lengthy seen by the USA as an autocratic adversary highlights the dramatic flip in Washington’s method to dealings with the Kremlin since Trump took workplace for a second presidential time period.
Witkoff additionally mentioned Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky was going through robust selections forward and that the president ought to acknowledge it’s time for him to “get a deal done” with Moscow.
Zelensky is “in a very, very difficult situation, but he’s up against a nuclear nation,” Witkoff mentioned. “So he’s got to know that he’s going to get ground down. Now is the best time for him to get a deal done.”
Witkoff’s feedback primarily had been delivered on pleasant floor. Carlson is a controversial former Fox Information star who carried out what was broadly thought-about to be a uncommon however smooth interview with Putin final yr.
Carlson has additionally been a number one propagator of pro-Kremlin narratives in the USA.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
