White Home envoy Steve Witkoff has praised Vladimir Putin in glowing phrases as reliable and mentioned the Russian chief informed him he had prayed for his “buddy” US President Donald Trump when he was shot.
Witkoff met with Putin over a number of hours final week in Moscow and informed US media the talks—which involved discussions about forging a path in the direction of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine—have been constructive and “solution-based.”
In an interview with right-wing podcast host Tucker Carlson, the envoy mentioned he has come to regard Putin as not a “bad man,” and that the Russian president was a “nice” chief in search of to end Moscow’s lethal three-year battle with Kyiv.
“I favored him. I believed he was straight up with me,” Witkoff mentioned in the interview aired Friday.
“I don’t regard Putin as a bad man. That’s a difficult state of affairs, that war, and all of the substances that led up to it.”
He additionally described a “private” aspect of the dialogue in which Putin recalled his response to the assassination try on Trump in July 2024 as the Republican held a marketing campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Putin “informed me a story… about how when the president was shot, he went to his native church and met together with his priest and prayed for the president,” Witkoff mentioned.
“Not as a result of… he might turn out to be the president of america, however as a result of he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his buddy.”
Putin had commissioned a “stunning portrait of President Trump from a main Russian artist,” and requested the envoy to take it house to Trump, Witkoff added.
“It was such a gracious second.”
Witkoff’s gushing reward of a president lengthy seen by america 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 decisions forward and that the president ought to acknowledge it’s time for him to “get a deal executed” with Moscow.
Zelensky is “in a very, very tough state of affairs, however he is up towards a nuclear nation,” Witkoff mentioned. “So he is received to know that he is going to get floor down. Now’s one of the best time for him to get a deal executed.”
Witkoff’s feedback primarily have been delivered on pleasant floor. Carlson is a controversial former Fox Information star who performed what was extensively thought-about to be a uncommon however smooth interview with Putin final 12 months.
Carlson has additionally been a main propagator of pro-Kremlin narratives in america.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
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