US-Russia Negotiations and Intelligence Contacts

Today, any contacts we have with the US

are attracting a lot of attention.

The head of the CIA visited and allegedly proposed trilateral Russia,

US, Ukraine talks. What do you think?

Do we need any new negotiating angles today and perhaps new mediators,

including among the Americans?

First of all, contacts between intelligence

representatives always take

place.

And as you may have noticed, very recently we handed over an American

citizen to the US side who was serving a sentence here.

Well, we handed him over on health and humanitarian grounds.

Plus, he's just a regular guy, a bit of a drinker, a brawler,

and his health is poor, so let him go home and get treatment.

So that's the first point. Contacts are always there and have always

existed, even during the most difficult times of

the Cold War, and even

more so now.

Direct contacts are maintained between intelligence chiefs as well.

Is there a need to expand the number of participants?

We favor ensuring that negotiations, any negotiations,

are packed above all with concrete substance, and if

someone brings or can bring a tangible contribution to this process,

we are all for it.

The

only thing we would like to avoid is having everything spin in a meaningless

loop.

But if someone is in a position to bring something positive to this negotiation

process, which as we understand is frozen to a certain degree

today,

then on the whole we are not opposed.

And here, of course, we probably need specialists,

military officers, and

diplomats.

Although for us it is completely comfortable to work with

people we know well

and generally trust. These are people close to President Trump.

In my view, they are sincere people

and are trying

to fill our work with real substance.

And President Trump trusts them, which is very important.

Without that, it is impossible to conduct any

negotiations at all.

Because if they agree on something with us and then the top leader filters

everything they say and divides it by a thousand or more,

then it

becomes pointless. But as it stands, we understand that he trusts them.

That is why both Mr. Kushner and Mr.

Witkoff are always welcome guests here,

and we are pleased to work with them.