The special envoy of US President Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, who is often called the resolver, was forced to wait eight hours to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and left Moscow a few hours later as soon as the negotiations ended. This is reported by the Sky TV channel.
Steve Witkoff did not stay long in the Russian capital, the channel emphasizes.
"According to the footage of his motorcade leaving and returning to Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, he was here for a little over 12 hours. And most of this, it seems, he was waiting, " the author writes.
Steve Witkoff, who became Trump's chief negotiator and is often called the president's decider, was sent to Moscow to convey to Vladimir Putin the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. His visit was scheduled for the beginning of the week, after the US-Ukrainian talks in Saudi Arabia. However, after arriving in Moscow around noon on Thursday, Witkoff was forced to sit idly by for at least eight hours before he was summoned to the Kremlin, the TV channel reports.
"Apparently, Putin was too busy meeting with someone else — Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko — for a hastily organized state visit, which was announced the day before. We don't know for sure whether the timing of Lukashenka's visit was deliberate, but it certainly wasn't a coincidence. Instead, it was like a classic Putin power play. It was like a message to the Americans: "I'm the boss, I set the schedule and I don't owe anyone," the author of the publication fantasizes.
It is noted that as a result, Putin gave Witkoff his personal time, "as soon as night fell, and behind closed doors."