"The Americans are driving" — Peskov explained Putin's consent to a late meeting with Witkoff

The time of day does not matter to Russian President Vladimir Putin when serious negotiations are underway. This was stated by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, explaining the meeting of the Russian leader with the envoys of his American counterpart Donald Trump in the Kremlin on the night of January 22-23.

"Our president is absolutely not inclined to pay attention to the time of day when such serious negotiations are taking place," Peskov explained, answering a question from VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin about why Putin's meeting with special envoy of the US President Steve Witkoff and son-in-law of the US President Jared Kushner on January 22 was held at a later time of the day.

"There is a high dynamic, the Americans are being driven as intermediaries, they are in a hurry, they can be understood," the Kremlin spokesman said.

As Peskov stressed, "there was an agreement that, in fact, negotiations of the working group on security in Abu Dhabi would already take place the next day."

"These groups should have received instructions. That's why the meeting with Witkoff was so important," he said.

Recall: the negotiations in the Kremlin took place on the night of January 22-23 and ended well after midnight.