White House envoy Steve Witkoff has praised Vladimir Putin in glowing terms as trustworthy and said the Russian leader told him he had prayed for his “friend” US President Donald Trump when he was shot.
During an interview with Tucker Carlson, Witkoff, who recently met with Putin in Moscow, praised the Russian leader as a “great” president and a pragmatic negotiator seeking an end to the ongoing war in Ukraine. He dismissed the perception of Putin as a “bad guy” and emphasized that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is a complex issue with deep-rooted causes.
Witkoff shared that Putin had commissioned a portrait of Trump by a renowned Russian artist, calling it a “gracious moment.” He also recounted how Putin visited a church and prayed for Trump after the attempted assassination in July 2024.
“I liked him. I thought he was straight up with me,” Witkoff said in the interview aired Friday.
“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it.”
He also described a “personal” element of the discussion in which Putin recalled his reaction to the assassination attempt on Trump in July 2024 as the Republican held a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Putin “told me a story… about how when the president was shot, he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president,” Witkoff said.
“Not because… he could become the president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend.”
Putin had commissioned a “beautiful portrait of President Trump from a leading Russian artist,” and asked the envoy to take it home to Trump, Witkoff added.
“It was such a gracious moment.”
Witkoff’s gushing praise of a president long seen by the United States as an autocratic adversary highlights the dramatic turn in Washington’s approach to dealings with the Kremlin since Trump took office for a second presidential term.
Witkoff also said Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky was facing tough choices ahead and that the president should recognize it is time for him to “get a deal done” with Moscow.
Zelensky is “in a very, very difficult situation, but he’s up against a nuclear nation,” Witkoff said. “So he’s got to know that he’s going to get ground down. Now is the best time for him to get a deal done.”
Witkoff’s comments essentially were delivered on friendly ground. Carlson is a controversial former Fox News star who conducted what was widely considered to be a rare but soft interview with Putin last year.
Carlson has also been a leading propagator of pro-Kremlin narratives in the United States.
AFP
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