MOSCOW (Reuters) – Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian sovereign wealth fund chief Kiril Dmitriv are involved in negotiating the release of US teacher Mark Vogel from a Russian prison near negotiations between Russia and the US I did. On the condition of anonymity.
The Kremlin could not be contacted to immediately comment. The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Moscow did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, also known as MBS, helped negotiate US Russia’s biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War in August 2024.
View the full article
The deal involved 24 prisoners in secret for over a year. Sixteen people moved west from Russia, including US journalist Evan Gerkovic, and eight people were sent back to Russia from the west.
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkov, brought Vogel back to the US from Moscow on Tuesday after an unannounced stop in Russia.
Witkov was quoted from the CNN reporter for X saying that MBS was “instrumental” and a “gentleman from Russia” named Kirill, “has much to do with this”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited Saudi Arabia in 2023, said last September that he was grateful to Mohammed bin Salman for his role in the previous exchange.
Putin and Mohammed bin Salman have cultivated a close personal relationship since 2015, when the prince first visited Russia. Reuters reported this month that Saudi Arabia is seen in Russia as a possible location for Russia and the US Summit.
Dmitriev, a former US-educated Goldman Sachs Banker and now CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), was in early contact between Moscow and Trump teams when he first became president in 2016. It played a role.
Dmitriv was also involved in measures that led to the release of US investment banker Michael Calvey from a Russian prison in 2019. He called Calbee a professional investor and personally assured him.
Rdif and Dmitrievi declined to comment to Reuters about their participation in the release of Fogel.
Putin and Trump spoke on Wednesday, saying the Kremlin had debated the end of the war in Ukraine. According to the Kremlin, the two leaders agreed to meet in the future, and Putin invited Trump to Moscow.
“Today, the leaders of the US and Russia may have opened the door to a future shaped by cooperation rather than conflict,” Dmitriev told reporters in a comment after the phone.
(Reporting by Moscow Newsroom, edited by Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Heinrich)
Disclaimer: This report is automatically generated from Reuters News Service. Print is not responsible for its content.
