Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday that Russia’s delegation and agenda for the Alaska summit between Putin and President Donald Trump have been finalized.
Ushakov said the Kremlin’s delegation to the summit on Friday will include Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Russian Direct Investment Fund chief Kirill Dmitriev, and Ushakov himself.
“Considering a number of sensitive issues on the agenda of the upcoming discussions, the range of the negotiation’s participants is not wide,” Ushakov noted. He said the meeting would begin with one-on-one talks between Trump and Putin, followed by a joint press conference.
Ushakov said the talks will focus on “achieving a long-term peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian crisis.”
“As for the agenda of the summit, it must be obvious to everyone that the focus will be on efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis, particularly given the discussions that took place at the Kremlin on August 6, which involved U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff,” said Putin’s aide.
“But of course, broader issues related to ensuring peace and security, as well as pressing regional and international issues, will also be touched upon,” he continued.
“An exchange of views is expected on the further development of bilateral cooperation, including in the trade and economic sphere. I note that this cooperation has huge – and unfortunately still untapped – potential,” he said.
Witkoff’s trip to Moscow on August 6 was billed as a last-ditch effort to get negotiations under way before President Trump’s deadline to “get a deal where people stop getting killed.”
In addition to meeting with Putin, Witkoff sat down with Dmitriev, a Stanford- and Harvard-educated equity funds manager who currently runs a $10 billion sovereign wealth fund for Putin. Dmitriev has become Putin’s unofficial envoy to the United States, a role acknowledged by the White House in April when it suspended sanctions against him, which were imposed by the Biden administration, to make it possible for him to visit the White House.
The Treasury Department had to issue similar sanctions waivers to make it possible for Putin and the rest of his entourage to visit Alaska. Unless they are extended, the exemptions are scheduled to expire on August 20.
The UK Telegraph reported on Wednesday that Trump intends to offer Putin “a number of money-making opportunities” if he will agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine, possibly including reduced sanctions and access to some of Alaska’s natural resources for Russia.
To that end, Trump’s delegation to the Alaska summit will reportedly include Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Trump said that if Friday’s meeting “goes okay,” he hopes to have a second meeting with Putin “almost immediately,” possibly bringing in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Putin sounded optimistic about the meeting on Thursday, as he held a meeting of his top advisers to brief them on “how the negotiation process on the Ukrainian crisis is going.”
Putin told his advisers that Trump is “making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict.”
The Russian leader said he expected his concerns about NATO expansion to be addressed at the summit, and a new nuclear arms control treaty might even be discussed.
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