India, Oct. 23 -- The US-Iran-Israel peace talks may have resulted in nothing, but Steve Witkoff, US president Donald Trump's special envoy, may finally have been able to redeem himself with his latest visit to Russia. The Kremlin reports that Vladimir Putin has, in principle, agreed to tripartite talks with the US and Ukraine to end the war. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, too, reports say, is agreeable to the US-mediated conflict resolution. Unlike his infructuous June trip to Doha with Jared Kushner to negotiate a peace deal with Iran, Witkoff's Norway-Russia trip seems to have started on a positive note, with a goodwill gesture from Putin's side: the release of retired US school teacher Stephen Hubbard. To be sure, Putin is famous for such diplomatic magnanimities. Whether it is shipping free grains to African countries in 2023, kissing the Koran in Chechnya in 2024, draping shawls around women dignitaries including Xi Jinping's wife Peng Liyuanas well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, or shaking hands with the presidential bodyguards during his 2025 India visit, Putin has long used such gestures to signal a softening even as Moscow's stand on issues has stayed unchanged. Whether Putin is seriously negotiating or stalling US sanctions will be revealed once the peace talks, potentially hosted by Abu Dhabi, begin in November. For the sake of the people of Russia and Ukraine, suffering the consequences of war for almost fiveyears now, sanctions and security guarantees mustbe discussed in good faith. The supply chain disruptions caused by this war have been feltglobally. The ongoing fuel crisis, exacerbated bythe West Asia crisis, and the shortages of food in different parts of the world such as Afghanistan are only going to worsen if Putin and Zelensky do not reach an agreement to end the war at the earliest....