foto: Jan Holoubek, PrahaIN.cz/Ministry of Interior - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Shortly after the start of talks between the United States and Russia in Riyadh on Tuesday, PrahaIN.cz had the opportunity to speak with two sources from the American administration. Under the condition of maintaining their anonymity, they described to us the events, which for the time being have only gotten out in part, through the Financial Times.
Our editors immediately contacted the White House and the Kremlin, as well as the US Department of State. After two days, however, all we got was an assurance that the officials would comment as soon as possible. From the American side, the deadline was March 1.
However, we already partially know what exactly happened in Saudi Arabia.
The first thing we were interested in was the background. The reason for the meeting with the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman, was an important relationship triangle. At its peak is, of course, the aforementioned statesman. However, he has strong personal ties to both the USA and Russia. According to both of our sources from the US administration, Jared Kushner, businessman and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, and Kirill Dmitriev are primarily "to blame" for the meeting.
His name is much neglected in the Czech environment. However, this 49-year-old businessman and Harvard graduate is one of Putin's closest allies, and his economic advice is said to be extremely valuable. By the way, Dmitriev worked both in the structures of Goldman Sachs and within the consulting company McKinsey & Company. Company also has an office in the Czech Republic. In 2008, McKinsey & Company was involved in the merger of the internet portals Atlas.cz and Centrum.cz. The author of this article was one of several selected managers of the process and dealt with the advisers. They were experts in economics and online business.
In later years, McKinsey was also associated with the PPF group, where it was supposed to assist Jean-Pascal Duvieusart, the former chairman of the board of PPF Financial Holdings a.s. Only Renata Kellnerova was supposed to limit this cooperation. These actions got her the respect of a number of influential Americans, who repeatedly described the details to us.
But back to Riyadh, the starring role players behind the scenes, according to our findings, were Jared Kushner and Kirill Dmitriev. The second question of the PrahaIN.cz server concerned the location and ties to Ukraine. "Ukraine was not the main topic, it was not even the main topic of the talks," our sources revealed.
The main reason was Iran. “Yes, it was primarily about Iran and its position within the region," the sources noted, adding that they "really will not provide more details via the Czech web portal." However, it can be assumed that America spoke not only for itself in this regard, but also for its key ally, which is Israel. If that were the case, the only possible starting point for negotiations would be a defense plan. However, this sentence has the same weight even in the opposite logic, i.e. that it was not a matter of defense, but a planned attack on Tehran. "We will not discuss anything like that," the sources added.
The last thing we wanted to know was Russia's demands towards Ukraine. In this regard, we have to say that Europe does not play a significant role in American plans. "With the exception of Germany, partly ABW (Polish secret service, editor's note)," said representatives of the US administration, stating that Great Britain has an independent position.
The aforementioned Financial Times published information that Russia should have demanded the withdrawal of NATO from Eastern Europe. This information is said to be true. However, there were more conditions from the Putin regime, our editors know of five. The second was, for example, the recovery of costs for the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2022 or the extradition of "all those who participated in the attacks in Moscow". This is where the name of Kyryl Budanov, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, came up.
Other demands that should have been on the table in Riyadh mainly related to spheres of influence and the division of the country.
But what is most important? People around President Trump already knew about them before the meeting in Riyadh. "Yes, it is," admitted the US representatives.
The last thing we were interested in was the influence of Europe on the described events. "It's not essential at this point. It wasn't because someone resisted the discussion, but precisely because Ukraine was not a strategic topic of discussion," the sources concluded, noting that Mike Pompeo, former CIA chief, was also a significant factor.