The Witkoff Steve Witkoff’s envoy congratulated Vladimir Putin in glowing terms as trustworthy and said that the Russian chief told him that he had prayed for his American “friend” Donald Trump when he was killed.
Witkoff met Putin for several hours last week in Moscow and told the American media the talks – who involved discussions on the abolition of a path to the end of the Russian war in Ukraine – Constructive and “based on solutions”.
In an interview with right -wing podcast host Tucker Carlson, the envoy said he had come to consider Putin as a “bad guy” and that the Russian president was a “big” leader seeking to end the Moscow deadly conflict with kyiv.
“I loved him. I thought he was directly with me,” said Witkoff in the interview broadcast on Friday.
“I do not consider Putin as a villain. It is a complicated situation, this war and all the ingredients that led there.”
He also described a “personal” element of the discussion in which Putin recalled his reaction to the assassination attempt on Trump in July 2024 while the Republican organized a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Putin “told me a story … on how the president was shot dead, he went to his local church and met his priest and prayed for the president,” said Witkoff.
“Not because … he could become president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him and prayed for his friend.”
Putin had ordered a “beautiful portrait of president Trump of a leading Russian artist” and asked the envoy to bring him back to Trump, added Witkoff.
“It was such a graceful moment.”
Witkoff’s gushing praise for a president who has long been considered by the United States as an autocratic opponent highlights the dramatic turn of Washington’s approach to the Kremlin’s dramatic turn since Trump took office for a second presidential term.
Witkoff also said that the Voludymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was facing difficult choices to come and that the president should recognize that it is time for him to “conclude an agreement” with Moscow.
Zelensky is “in a very, very difficult situation, but he faces a nuclear nation,” said Witkoff. “So he must know that he will come down. It’s the best time for him to conclude an agreement.”
Witkoff’s comments were mainly delivered on friendly field. Carlson is a controversial former Fox News star who led what was widely considered a rare but sweet interview with Putin last year.
Carlson was also one of the main propagators of pro-Kremlin stories in the United States.
This story was initially presented on Fortune.com
