If Kremlin agrees to a ceasefire deal in the Ukraine conflict, the country can expect American companies to return to the Russian market, US special envoy Steve Witkoff has said on Sunday in an interview to CBS.
“There would be an expectation that if we get to a peace deal, that you would be able to have American companies come back and do business there. And I think that everybody would believe that that would be a positive, good thing to happen,” the diplomat said several days after the three and a half hours meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Witkoff was commenting on the statement by the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev, who stressed after the meeting that he expects US companies – or at least a good number of them – to return to the Russian market in the second quarter of 2025 as part of the sanctions relief discussed.
Although he pointed out that the subject did not come up during the meeting, Witkoff said that the expectation exists and that’s quite normal.
