With Sanctions Looming, Trump’s Envoy to Russia Meets With Putin

Steve Witkoff, an envoy for President Trump, met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for the fifth time this year on Wednesday, holding talks that Mr. Trump had described as pivotal in determining whether the United States goes ahead with new sanctions against Russia.

Russian news agencies said the meeting lasted about three hours, but there was little immediate clarity about how it went. Yuri Ushakov, Mr. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, called the meeting “very useful and constructive.”

Mr. Trump, in a post on social media, called it “highly productive” and added, “Great progress was made!”

But a few hours after the meeting’s end, Mr. Trump announced that he would increase his tariffs on India to 50 percent, describing the move as a penalty for purchasing Russian oil. Mr. Trump also ordered his administration to determine whether other countries are importing Russian oil and recommending whether they should face similar tariffs.

Mr. Trump had said on Tuesday that depending on the results of Mr. Witkoff’s meeting, the United States could impose new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its fossil fuels.

A White House official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the meeting, said Mr. Trump’s timetable was unchanged and that the secondary sanctions he has threatened were still expected to be implemented on Friday.

Mr. Ushakov, Mr. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said that Mr. Witkoff had passed along “signals” from Mr. Trump and that Mr. Putin had conveyed “some signals” back. He added that he would offer more details once Mr. Witkoff had briefed Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump wrote in his post on social media that he had shared an update of Mr. Witkoff’s meeting with several European allies, and said that “everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come.”

Previous meetings between Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Putin drew praise from the Kremlin without leading to any breakthroughs in stopping the Ukraine war, which Mr. Trump described as his primary goal in diplomacy with Russia.