Kremlin focuses on sanctions relief as senior US and Russian officials meet in Riyadh

Negotiations between teams representing Russia and the United States have begun in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday morning.

The two national delegations met at the Diriyah Palace, the former residence of the Saudi royal family, in the first high-level meeting between Moscow and Washington for three years.

The Russian delegation is led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and includes senior Putin aide Yury Ushakov and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev, while the US team includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and the US president’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.

The main priority for the Russian team at the talks, according to a source that spoke to The Washington Post, is the lifting of some sanctions, including those against high-ranking officials and some oligarchs, as well as the ending of a number of restrictions in the energy sector.

The Russian delegation would also be pushing for the re-establishment of diplomatic channels between Moscow and Washington, which were restricted following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, The Post noted, adding that there has been no Russian ambassador to the United States since October.

However, in an interview with CNN, Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev rejected reports that Russia’s primary interest lay in its efforts to ease sanctions, and hailed the potential rewards to be reaped by both sides if the US and Russian economies were reintegrated.

Dmitriev also said that the US team had not yet made any specific promises. “I think the promise is as follows: let’s have a dialogue, let’s find the best solution for our countries, for other countries, for the international community,” Dmitriev said.

Dmitriev added that he had made time to meet with the members of the US delegation before the talks and had found them to be “great at problem-solving”.

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told WP that the objective of the talks in Riyadh was “to see if we can move forward” on more substantive US-mediated talks on Ukraine.