U.S. will eventually lift Russia sanctions, Putin’s envoy says
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Kirill Dmitriev and Steve Witkoff (Photo: Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS)
Kremlin special representative Kirill Dmitriev, responsible
for negotiations
with Washington on the Russo–Ukrainian war, said the United States will “eventually”
lift sanctions out of its own interest.
In a Twitter post on Feb. 18, Dmitriev was commenting on an article by The Economist that suggested that Moscow is attempting to entice Washington by offering a $12 trillion portfolio of joint investment projects.
“The U.S. will eventually lift sanctions because sanctions on Russia cost U.S. businesses $300+ billion,” he wrote, without citing a source for the figure.
“Lifting sanctions on Russia is in the U.S. interest. The portfolio of potential U.S.–Russia projects is over $14 trillion.”
The Economist reported that, ahead of the August 2025 Alaska summit, Russia’s Security Council prepared a memo outlining how to sell U.S. President Donald Trump on “the best deal.” The magazine said Dmitriev met nine times with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, beginning in April 2025.
According to The Economist, Russian negotiators offered the United States stakes in energy projects, including Arctic oil and gas development and rare-earth deposits, and proposed building a nuclear-powered data-processing center and a tunnel under the Bering Strait.
The magazine also reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, citing Ukrainian intelligence, said Russia had promised the United States $12 trillion in deals in return for sanctions relief. One source told The Economist that the package of deals had already been agreed.
On Feb. 4, Bloomberg, citing European officials, reported
that the United States had prepared additional sanctions against Russia but
that there were no signs they had been imposed. Treasury Secretary Scott
Bessent said Washington was considering strengthening sanctions and that any
further restrictions would depend on the progress of peace negotiations.
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