CNN
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A United States delegation led by real estate tycoon-turned-diplomat Steve Witkoff has begun a high-stakes meeting with Kremlin negotiators in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where the Trump administration is pushing for a ceasefire in separate talks with Russia and Ukraine.

Russia’s TASS news agency reported that talks were underway on Monday morning, citing an unnamed source.

The meeting comes one day after talks between a US team led by President Donald Trump’s Kyiv envoy, Keith Kellogg, and Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, which was described by the latter as “productive and focused.”

While many watching from Washington, and across Europe, will hope some initial positivity can be translated into a 30-day ceasefire and longer-term negotiations, a wide gulf in expectations exists between Russia, Ukraine and their US interlocutors.

A barrage of Russian drone attacks killed at least six in Ukraine over the weekend, including young families. Moscow accuses Ukraine of recent hits on gas and oil facilities in Kursk and Krasnodar despite its offer to halt attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

The Russian delegation at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh includes seasoned Kremlin diplomat Grigory Karasin and former spy chief Sergey Beseda, according to Russian state media. Beseda is viewed by many in Ukraine as a hard-nosed nationalist and early supporter of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The trust deficit on the Ukrainian side has not been helped by Witkoff’s recent rhetorical support for many of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s maximalist positions ahead of talks. Speaking to podcast host Tucker Carlson on Sunday, Witkoff appeared to show some sympathy toward Russia’s territorial ambitions in Ukraine, describing the four regions Russia wants to formally annex — Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk — as “Russian speaking.”

“There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule,” he said.

Russia held the referendums in occupied areas of the four territories in September 2022. The votes were widely viewed as a sham and heavily criticized by the US at the time as well as by allies in Europe.

“The Russians are de facto in control of these territories. The question is: Will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories?” Witkoff asked Sunday. “Can (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky survive politically if he acknowledges this? This is the central issue in the conflict.”

Moscow says a ceasefire will not be possible unless Kyiv agrees not to use it to resupply or reorganize its troops. It has also publicly voiced key demands such as Ukraine never being allowed to join NATO.

Speaking Sunday night, Zelensky put the responsibility on Putin to end the war.

“The one who brought this war must take it away,” he said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Luxury car sales in Singapore have plummeted as buyers shun ostentatious displays of wealth after the government raised taxes on the vehicles and stepped up due diligence checks in response to a $2bn money-laundering scandal.

The number of new Bentley, Ferrari, Jaguar and Rolls-Royce models sold in the city-state dropped by as much as three-quarters last year compared with 2023, as wealthy buyers shunned luxury brands following a damaging money-laundering case in which police seized scores of flashy vehicles.

“Most of the luxury cars bought in recent years were by Chinese customers,” said Anson Lee, managing director of luxury car dealership Euro Performance Asia. “Following the scandal, you are now seeing the market stagnate.

“I still have Chinese customers, but they want to keep a low profile, so the whole market has slowed down,” said Lee, adding that his customers increasingly preferred electric vehicles.

EV sales have rocketed, particularly for Chinese manufacturer BYD, which was the second top-selling car brand in Singapore last year after only entering the market in 2020.

BYD sales hit 6,191 in 2024, a fourfold increase on the year before, while Tesla sales more than doubled to 2,384, according to figures from the Land Transport Authority.

At the same time, new Rolls-Royce sales dropped from 95 to 23 last year, while the figure for Ferrari fell from 97 to 29. The number of new Jaguars nearly halved to 27, while Bentley sales fell to 25 from 58.

Bentley attributed the decline to the run-out of existing models, with new versions of the Continental GT and Flying Spur entering the market only at the start of this year. It expects sales to improve with the availability of the new cars.

Jaguar, Ferrari and Rolls-Royce declined to comment.

Singapore has seen an influx of wealth in recent years, especially from Chinese nationals, as it competes to be Asia’s premier asset and wealth management hub, but the ambitions have also come with risk.

The city-state was rocked two years ago by a money-laundering case involving individuals linked to a gang from China’s Fujian province. During raids on properties across the island, police seized 77 vehicles.

At one property, four cars with a combined value of S$4.7mn (US$3.5mn) were confiscated, including a red Rolls-Royce Dawn, a black Rolls-Royce Cullinan, a red Porsche 911 Targa and a white Toyota Alphard.

“You see a lot fewer red Rolls-Royces cruising around Singapore these days,” said a person involved in the case in which 10 individuals have been sentenced.

Dealers said one of the reasons for the decline in new luxury vehicles was that the confiscated cars were being sold back to the market. Singapore’s justice minister, K Shanmugam, said last month that the government had so far sold 33 of the seized cars.

In response to the scandal, Singapore’s government ordered luxury car dealers, property agents and gemstone sellers to check sources of financing for their most expensive products and report buyers they suspected of having criminal links.

“We have [always had] to do our due diligence on customers, but this has become more sensitive because of the money-laundering case,” said Lee.

Luxury car sales have also been hit by a higher tax introduced in 2023 to cool what the government perceived as an overheated market coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Taxes on the most expensive cars — those priced above S$80,000 — rose to 320 per cent from 220 per cent. The government also introduced changes to limit the resale value of cars.

Another consideration for buyers is the cost of certificates of entitlement, which residents must obtain before they are allowed to purchase a car. The prices are based on a bidding system to control the number of vehicles on the road.

For the most powerful models, the certificates currently cost just under S$117,000, up from S$96,000 a year ago but significantly below the S$150,000 pricetag in November 2023, reflecting a drop in demand for high-end vehicles.