What Russia offers the US: Zelenskyy says it’s an empty document in negotiations

Kirill Dmitriev, a special envoy of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has been involved in negotiations with Washington regarding the development of mineral resources in the aggressor country, is not only trying to manipulate the U.S. on the minerals agreement but also seeking to unfreeze Russian assets.

This was stated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a conversation with journalists on April 9.

According to Zelenskyy, Russia is offering the U.S. government an “empty document”. This is done through Dmitriev — the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, who has relevant connections with the American side.

“Just to show that, supposedly, "it’s hard to deal with the Ukrainians on minerals because they cling to every detail, while we’re ready." But we know for certain that it (the document — Ed.) will be empty because the Russians won’t give up energy. They’ve been stealing that money from their own people for a long time, sitting on all those flows, so America definitely won’t get it… But the scheme is about leading to the unblocking of economic relations. I’d look at it more deeply. For instance, they want the lifting of sanctions on specific individuals who would oversee certain sectors, like Russian minerals, which they’d offer them,” Zelenskyy explained.

The Russians propose using their frozen assets

The fact that the Kremlin will suggest Washington use Russia’s frozen assets, according to Zelenskyy, is “another story.”

“We believe they’ve started taking the following steps through this person (Dmitriev — Ed.): they can’t lift the asset freeze directly, but what can they do? For example, among those 300 billion, there are 2, 3, or 5 billion belonging to a certain individual. And then, for instance, some sanctions could be lifted with someone’s help in Europe. For example, those billions are taken and sold as debt to the leader of a Middle Eastern country. Say something worth five billion is sold for three. Then that Middle Eastern country, legally owning that debt after buying it for three billion, can work with European institutions to extract those five billion from the 300 billion. Got it? And we see this chain — some guy, a comrade, or whatever he is, a separatist born in Ukraine — Dmitriev is taking these steps,” the President said.

According to Zelenskyy, this is how the Russian are trying to retrieve that money.

“The fact that they offered American businesses to buy large quantities of this or that product using those assets is also true. For example, they said they would take for themselves dozens of passenger planes. And the payment is in Europe, you can pick it up there. With discounts and so on. Overall, they’re offering the Western world to use this money in exchange for steps like lifting sanctions,” Zelenskyy said.

Therefore, the President added, Ukraine is working to ensure that sanctions against Russia are not lifted, as this could be tied to the frozen assets.

“For instance, we know that the "Nord Stream 2" issue is also in play. Again. And there are certain interests involved. By the way, I’d like to point out, we believe this topic isn’t being discussed with Germany,” Zelenskyy concluded.