Leaked phone calls throw scrutiny on Witkoff’s pro-Kremlin positions (updated)
“It is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians,” Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said tonight. “He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. …He should be fired.”
Leaked phone calls between top Kremlin aides and Trump peace envoy Steve Witkoff suggest the Russians believed they could launder their positions into a U.S. draft peace plan without the Kremlin committing to it.
Just as President Trump today announced that he was sending Witkoff back to Russia to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bloomberg published the transcript of an October 14 phone call between Witkoff and top Kremlin foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov.
Witkoff comes off in the call like he favors the Russian side, and is maneuvering to help the Kremlin gain favor with Trump and in the Trump administration’s efforts to advance a Russian/Ukraine peace deal.
In the Oct. 14 call, Ushakov and Witkoff agree that Putin and Trump should hold a phone call before a visit later that week by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House. And Witkoff proposes to the top Kremlin foreign policy advisor how he would advise Putin to butter up Trump, by praising him as a man of peace for the just announced Israel-Gaza peace deal.
“I would make the call and just reiterate that you congratulate the president on his achievement, that you supported it,” Witkoff proposes to the Kremlin advisor how Putin might flatter Trump. “That you respect he is a man of peace.”
Witkoff also tells the top Kremlin aide that he personally believes Russia wants a peace deal, and reiterates how much he respects Putin.
“I told the president …that the Russian Federation has always wanted a peace deal,” Witkoff told Ushakov. “That’s my belief. …The issue is that we have two nations that are having a hard time coming to a compromise…Maybe just say this to Pres. Putin, because you know I have the deepest respect for Pres. Putin.”
Witkoff reminds Ushakov that Zelensky is coming to the White House that Friday (Oct. 17), and says it is important that Putin and Trump speak before then.
“I will go to that meeting because they want me there, but I think if possible we have the call with your boss before that Friday meeting.”
Ushakov responds: Before?
Witkoff: Correct.
Ushakov: Ok, ok. I got your advice. So I discuss that with my boss and then I come back to you, ok?
Two days later, on Oct. 16, Trump and Putin indeed held an over two hour phone call, which Trump described as “very productive,” and said they had agreed to meet in Budapest, Hungary, in the coming weeks. That meeting though has still not taken place.
Bloomberg also published the transcript of a second phone call recording it said it obtained, an October 29 call between Ushakov and Kremlin economic advisor Kirill Dmitriev, who has served as the chief Russian interlocutor with Witkoff.
Kremlin advisors say U.S. plan will be “as close as possible” to Kremlin plan
In the second call, Dmitriev has just arrived in Saudi Arabia after spending three days with Witkoff and Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner in Miami, Florida.
He and Ushakov discuss forwarding a proposal advancing a maximalist Russian position on ending the war in Ukraine that Dmitriev says he will “informally” pass to his U.S. interlocutors, who will adapt it into their own plan.
“Well, we need the maximum, don’t you think? …Otherwise, what’s the point of passing anything on,” Ushakov tells Dmitriev.
“I think we’ll just make this paper from our position, and I’ll informally pass it along, making it clear that it’s all informal,” Dmitriev responds, seemingly implying by “informal” that it is not an official Russian position that the Kremlin would necessarily accept. “And let them do like their own. But, I don’t think they’ll take exactly our version, but at least it’ll be as close to it as possible.”
The two advisors discuss whether the U.S. side will insist the Kremlin has agreed with the proposal if they offer one.
“They might twist it later,” Ushakov worries. “There is that risk.”
“It seems to me you can talk later with Steve [Witkoff] about this paper,” Dmitriev assures Ushakov. “We will do everything neatly.”
The explosive leaks raise significant questions about Witkoff’s overly Kremlin-friendly positions. They come as Secretary of State Marco Rubio returned from leading the US delegation to talks with the Ukrainians in Geneva on Sunday where the parties said they revised a heavily Kremlin-tilted 28-point U.S. proposal drafted primarily by Witkoff in consultation with Dmitriev.
Zelensky advisors had proposed earlier today that Zelensky follow up the Geneva meetings by coming to meet Trump in the U.S. in the coming days. But Trump seemed to resist such a meeting, saying today that he will first send Witkoff to meet Putin, and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet the Ukrainians, to try to further narrow remaining gaps.
“Over the past week, my team has made tremendous progress with respect to ending the war between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The original 28-point peace plan, which was drafted by the United States, has been fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides …
“In the hopes of finalizing this Peace Plan, I have directed my Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with President Putin in Moscow and, at the same time, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will be meeting with the Ukrainians.”
“I will be look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelenskyy and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this war is FINAL, or, in its final stages.”
Rubio managed to get the negotiations in a much better place at the meetings in Geneva this past weekend than where they were after the leak of Witkoff’s overly Russian-tilted 28-point plan last week, former US diplomat Daniel Fried said.
“The negotiations are hot and on a fast track,” Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland and senior NSC and State diplomat official, said today on an Atlantic Council virtual briefing. “They are in far better shape than they were when the US had pushed through its 28-point plan without adequate consultation with allies or the Ukrainians, much better shape after Geneva. Full credit to Sec. Rubio.”
“I think the Ukrainians have wisely positioned themselves in a supporting role,” Fried continued. “They’re all behind the Trump initiative, and the Russians are going to have to decide whether they’re going to be spoiler and possibly incur Trump’s wrath, or whether they will actually try to settle. I think the former, but we shall see.”
Former NSC Europe official Charles Kupchan credited Trump with trying to end the war, but said the divisions within the Trump team were contributing to a sense of strategic incoherence.
“There hasn’t been a coherent team inside the Trump administration,” Kupchan, now with the Council on Foreign Relations, said. “I think it’s become quite apparent over the last week or so, that Witkoff is freelancing and is not really linked up with Sec. Rubio…You just don’t have a team in Washington that is singing from the same sheet of music.”
GOP rep: Witkoff ‘cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations’
Two Republican congressmen, responding to the Bloomberg report, said tonight that Witkoff should be removed from this file, or fired altogether.
“It is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians,” Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon said tonight. “He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. …He should be fired.”
The Witkoff channel with the Kremlin “is a major problem,” Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent, wrote on Twitter. “And one of the many reasons why these ridiculous side shows and secret meetings need to stop. Allow Secretary of State Marco Rubio to do his job in a fair and objective manner.”
But while Trump claimed he had not read the story, he and the White House expressed continuing support for Witkoff.
Update 8:40pm: Trump said tonight that he had not heard the leaked phone calls published by Bloomberg, but said he understood that what Witkoff was engaged in in them was “standard negotiation.”
“I haven’t heard it, but it’s a standard thing,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One tonight as he traveled to his resort in Palm Beach, Florida. “Because he’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell Ukraine. That’s what a dealmaker does. You’ve got to say look, they want this, you’ve got to convince them of this. You know, that’s a very standard form of negotiation. I haven’t heard it, but I heard it was standard negotiation. And I would imagine he’s saying the same thing to Ukraine. Because each party has to give and take.”
Q: So you’re not worried that he’s too pro-Russian?
“Look, this war could go on for years, and Russia’s got a lot more people. A lot more soldiers. So I think if Ukraine can make a deal it’s a good thing. I think it’s great for both… Ukraine’s got a much smaller group of people. They’ve lost a lot of people. Russia’s lost a lot of people. But Russia has a much bigger pool of people.”
Earlier tonight, the White House put out a statement backing Witkoff.
“This story proves one thing: Special Envoy Witkoff talks to officials in both Russia and Ukraine nearly every day to achieve peace, which is exactly what President Trump appointed him to do,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said.
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I do wonder who exactly is leaking these transcripts.