FLASH
Shkruar nga PamfletiSecretary of State Marco Rubio was certainly surprised by Witkoff's Russian moves when the "peace plan" was released and immediately noted publicly that the text was largely Moscow's own material.
Steve Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, a former American businessman and senior Russian diplomat, are said to have been key figures behind the drafting of the 28-point peace plan for Ukraine, a proposal that the US administration presented as its own initiative, but which was in fact largely based on a Russian draft. The scandal began with a five-minute phone call on October 14, a day after Donald Trump became the first US president since 2008 to address the Israeli Knesset, buoyed by the success of the Gaza peace deal.
According to a transcript published by Bloomberg, Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, suggests to Ushakov that they work on a similar plan to end the war in Ukraine. He tells him that Russia “has always wanted a peace deal” and suggests that Putin call Trump to congratulate him on the Gaza deal, ahead of a planned visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House. Witkoff goes further, suggesting that a deal would require “Donetsk and a land swap.”
Ushakov accepts the idea and promises that Putin will call Trump, which happens on October 16. During the conversation, Putin manages to secure Trump's agreement to a meeting in Budapest (which was later postponed), as well as influence the halting of a shipment of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
Between October 24 and 26, Ushakov sent Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund, to Miami to deliver a “non-paper,” an unofficial draft of the Russian proposal, to Witkoff. Another phone call on October 29, published by Bloomberg, shows that Dmitriev was acting on Ushakov’s behalf.
In that conversation, Ushakov asks for the "maximum" for the document, while Dmitriev states that they will write the Russian position as faithfully as possible, being aware that the American side may change it later.
The prediction proved correct. On November 21, the US presented a new version of the plan, called by Putin “modernized in 28 points,” very similar to Moscow’s draft, but with some adjustments. The document was subsequently revised in Geneva and Abu Dhabi, and Witkoff was expected to discuss it this week in Moscow, his sixth visit to the Kremlin. But the release of the transcripts has cast a shadow over the trip.
Trump has come to Witkoff's defense, calling the conversation "common in the negotiation process." However, some Republican lawmakers have called for his resignation. Don Bacon accuses him of "behaving like a man in the service of Russia," while Brian Fitzpatrick calls the conversation "a serious problem" and wants Senator Marco Rubio to take over the matter.
In Moscow, meanwhile, officials are calling the release of the phone calls “hybrid warfare,” while the Kommersant newspaper asks: “Who trapped Steve Witkoff?” The Kremlin has taken a clear stance: It rejects calls for his resignation, stating that the goal of releasing the materials is “to sabotage peace efforts.”
But who betrayed Steve Witkoff?
Because someone must have done it, and they must have had significant resources to do it. The identity of that person or persons holds at least some answers to questions about the apparent tensions within the deep state, the deepest levels of government and its branches in the United States. It may also offer insight into the internal struggle that awaits the Republican Party in the wake of Donald Trump’s (presumed) 2028 presidential election.
The White House emissaries' bold negotiations with Russia are certainly setting off a confrontation, potentially entirely internal to America and its apparatus. And now some signs of the conflict may be starting to emerge from abroad as well.
Just as Trump was sending his loyal and all-powerful business partner Witkoff to Moscow last night, Bloomberg published a remarkable piece of news. These are the transcripts of two intercepted phone conversations about the negotiations over Ukraine and Witkoff’s own role. In the first, the US president’s envoy asks for Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s national security adviser. It’s Tuesday, October 14, shortly after the Gaza ceasefire agreement. The American suggests to his Russian counterpart that he make sure Putin calls Trump by Friday, before the US president hosts Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
Witkoff also advises Ushakov on what Putin can say to curry favor with Trump at the beginning of the call ("congratulate the president on his achievements" regarding Gaza).
Then Witkoff also points to some elements of a deal for Ukraine: "I know what's needed for a peace deal: Donetsk and maybe a territory swap somewhere."
Witkoff's idea is very similar to the proposal Putin presented to Trump at the Anchorage summit in August: Ukraine would give up the parts of Donbas it still controls (about 5,000 square kilometers), in exchange for Russia withdrawing from some extremely limited territories it occupies elsewhere in the country.
Reinforced by this message, Ushakov himself and Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, spoke two weeks later in a second wiretap published by Bloomberg. Ushakov notes that based on Witkoff’s position, in light of a Russian-American document on Ukraine, “we need the maximum otherwise what’s the point?” Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy for the talks with Witkoff, agrees: “I think we just draft this document based on our position and pass it along informally.”
In essence, Witkoff appears anything but impartial between Russia and Ukraine and even seems to have empowered Moscow's negotiators to feel legitimate in their intransigence. And that's not all. It is also clear from the calls that the so-called 28-point "peace plan" prepared in Miami by Witkoff and Dmitriev had in fact already been drafted in Moscow.
But who could have eavesdropped on these actors, and who could have had an interest in trying to so severely damage Witkoff's credibility? It's impossible to say, but several factors leave room for speculation.
Just days before Bloomberg published the wiretaps, Reuters wrote: “The administration’s discussions with Dmitriev (Putin’s envoy, ed.) are worrying some in the intelligence community, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said.” And again: “Dmitriev has previously used his role at the (Russian) sovereign wealth fund to lobby several Western governments and companies, even amid sanctions. The CIA — according to Reuters — has declined to comment on the (American, ed.) intelligence community’s concerns about Dmitriev.”
It seems clear that the American foreign policy establishment and its deep state are not at all comfortable with the role of a private, informal, and shadowy businessman like Witkoff in their dealings with Dmitriev and Russia. And the American intelligence community certainly had the means to conduct such audacious wiretapping. Ukrainian intelligence likely has the means as well, but especially at this time, Kiev has no interest in releasing revelations that could only irritate Trump and further alienate him from Ukraine, drawing him even closer to Putin.
It remains to be seen whether, assuming the leaks come from sectors of the US intelligence community itself, there is political cover for them. Traditionally, they have never acted without it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was certainly surprised by Witkoff's Russian moves when the "peace plan" was released and immediately noted publicly that the text was largely Moscow's own material./ Pamphlet
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