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 “good 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 the direction of ending Russia’s conflict 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 “unhealthy man,” and that the Russian president was a “nice” chief looking for to finish Moscow’s lethal three-year battle with Kyiv.
“I preferred him. I believed he was straight up with me,” Witkoff mentioned within the interview aired Friday.
“I do not regard Putin as a nasty man. That could be a sophisticated state of affairs, that conflict, and all of the substances that led as much as it.”
He additionally described a “private” 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 “advised me a narrative… about how when the president was shot, he went to his native church and met along with his priest and prayed for the president,” Witkoff mentioned.
“Not as a result of… he might develop into the president of the USA, however as a result of he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his good friend.”
Putin had commissioned a “lovely portrait of President Trump from a number one Russian artist,” and requested the envoy to take it dwelling to Trump, Witkoff added.
“It was such a gracious second.”
Witkoff’s gushing reward of a president lengthy seen by the USA as an autocratic adversary highlights the dramatic flip in Washington’s strategy 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 really, very tough state of affairs, however he is up in opposition to a nuclear nation,” Witkoff mentioned. “So he is received to know that he’ll get floor down. Now could be the very best time for him to get a deal executed.”
Witkoff’s feedback primarily had been delivered on pleasant floor. Carlson is a controversial former Fox Information star who performed what was broadly thought-about to be a uncommon however smooth interview with Putin final 12 months.
Carlson has additionally been a number one propagator of pro-Kremlin narratives in the USA.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
