Vladimir Medinsky
Vladimir Medinsky is a Russian historian, public official and politician. He served as Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation from 2012 to 2020. He is currently an aide to President Vladimir Putin and leads the Russian delegation in negotiations related to the war in Ukraine.
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Witkoff brings Oslo proposals to Putin; Russia signals readiness for trilateral talks around 10 November
US special envoy Steve Witkoff travelled from Oslo to St Petersburg on 21 October 2026 and met Vladimir Putin at the Konstantinovsky Palace for roughly three hours. Putin told Witkoff Moscow is in principle ready to resume trilateral Russia-US-Ukraine talks around 10 November, focused on a post-war security system. The meeting, in which Jared Kushner joined remotely because of flu, followed a day of Oslo talks between Witkoff, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, where Zelensky told Fox News he would accept a deal freezing the front along current lines.