Putin stated he prayed for ‘his good friend’ Donald Trump after 2024 assassination try, U.S. envoy says

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated he prayed for “his good friend” Donald Trump after an murderer’s bullet grazed the then-presidential candidate’s ear final 12 months, U.S. particular envoy Steve Witkoff stated in an interview Friday.

Showing on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, Witkoff praised Putin’s willingness to debate how you can finish the struggle in Ukraine and stated it was “preposterous” to say that Russia had designs on ultimately attacking different nations in Europe.

Witkoff, who has met with Putin twice, stated throughout his second go to to Moscow the Russian president’s messages for Trump “received private.” The Russian autocrat recounted his deep concern after Trump was focused in an assassination try throughout a marketing campaign cease in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July of final 12 months, Witkoff stated.

Putin “informed 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 stated. Putin did it “not as a result of … he may grow to be the president of the US, however as a result of he had a friendship with him, and he was praying for his good friend.”

Throughout the identical go to, the Russian president offered a portray of Trump that he commissioned from a Russian artist as a reward to the American president, Witkoff stated.

“I got here house and delivered that message to our president, and delivered the portray, and he was clearly touched by it,” Witkoff stated. “So that is the sort of connection that we’ve been capable of re-establish via, by the best way, a easy phrase referred to as communication.”

Witkoff dismissed criticism of the Trump administration’s outreach to Putin, saying the one technique to resolve the struggle in Ukraine is to talk to all sides within the battle. He additionally rejected portrayals of Putin as a nefarious actor who can’t be trusted.

Witkoff stated some individuals would possibly query if he ought to have met with the Russian president as a result of they see Putin as “a nasty man.” However he stated: “I don’t regard Putin as a nasty man.”

An actual property tycoon and good friend of the president who has grow to be a high diplomatic envoy for Trump, Wiktoff stated he appreciated Putin being open to assembly with him and speaking in a “simple” manner.

“I favored him. I believed he was straight up with me,” he stated, including that “it was gracious of him to simply accept me, to see me.”

Poisonings, shootings and aircraft crashes

Putin, a former KGB officer who has dominated Russia for the final 25 years, has been blamed for the killings of a number of Russian opposition leaders, most not too long ago Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian jail final 12 months.

Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a aircraft crash final 12 months, simply months after main his Wagner Group forces in an aborted mutiny in opposition to Putin. His short-lived revolt was sparked by disagreements concerning the struggle in Ukraine. No investigative findings have been launched after the fiery crash, which additionally killed 9 different individuals.

Boris Nemtsov, as soon as thought-about the chief of Russia’s opposition and one in every of Putin’s fiercest critics, was shot useless in 2015, only a few ft away from the Kremlin.

And in 2018 former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia have been poisoned within the U.Okay. with a nerve agent believed to be the identical Novichok poison later used on Navalny. Two Russians additionally allegedly poisoned former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of Putin’s who had fled to the U.Okay.

Famend journalist Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down outdoors her Moscow condominium in 2006 after warning reporters in Russia concerning the dangers of difficult the Kremlin’s narrative.

Putin blamed Biden

Witkoff stated Putin identified of their assembly that he and former President Joe Biden didn’t communicate for 3 years, which Witkoff referred to as a mistake.

“How do you agree a battle until we set up belief and good emotions with each other?” Witkoff stated.

Trump’s envoy stated an administration official had warned him beforehand that Putin was a former KGB officer. However Witkoff stated that background merely meant that Putin was among the many elite within the former Soviet Union, as he stated the spy service recruited extremely succesful individuals.

“Within the previous days, the one individuals who went into the KGB have been the neatest individuals within the nation,” Witkoff stated. “That’s who went into the KGB. He’s a brilliant sensible man.”

Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine violated worldwide legislation, and Russian forces seem to have dedicated struggle crimes there, in accordance with European, United Nations and Biden administration officers. However Witkoff steered the media protection of the struggle had been distorted and that the battle couldn’t be blamed solely on one aspect.

“That may be a difficult state of affairs that struggle, and all of the substances that led as much as it,” he stated.

The particular envoy stated the important thing to resolving the struggle in Ukraine was Russia’s declare to 4 jap areas in Ukraine — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. He referred to as the problem “the elephant within the room.”

Ukraine opposes ceding the territory, which stays a part of Ukraine’s internationally acknowledged borders.

Russian troops occupy many of the areas and Moscow has held referendums on becoming a member of Russia, which Western nations and Ukraine have denounced as shams performed beneath repression.

However Witkoff, who struggled to call all 4 of the areas within the interview, cited the Russian-organized votes as a sign that folks within the space most popular Russian rule.

“They’re Russian-speaking,” he stated. “There have been referendums the place the overwhelming majority of the individuals have indicated that they need to be beneath Russian rule.”

Witkoff stated it was unclear if Ukraine may settle for ceding that territory to Russia and if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may survive politically if he acknowledged Russian management of the realm.

“The Russians are de facto in charge of these territories,” Witkoff stated. “Will the world acknowledge that these are Russian territories?”

He added that Russia didn’t need to take in all of Ukraine and that it already has what it needs, by taking the 4 jap areas and the Crimean Peninsula.

“The Russians even have what they need,” he stated. “So why do they want extra?”