Vladimir Putin Photo credit: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / Profimedia
Before the first meeting, Witkoff was asked by Vladimir Putin only one thing, but completely unusual given the difficulty of the discussions and the consequences of the negotiations that were to take place. Putin told him to come to the Kremlin unaccompanied by CIA agents, diplomatic personnel or translators.
Steve Witkoff, a billionaire with a fortune made in real estate and a longtime golf partner of Donald Trump, was only a few days the special envoy for the Middle East of the American president, when he received a surprising message from the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, writes the Wall Street Journal.
Why Kellogg was shunned
Vladimir Putin was interested in meeting with Witkoff, so interested that he would be willing to accept the release of an American prisoner. The invitation came from the special representative of the Russian president, Kirill Dmitriev, via Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
But Witkoff was given one condition for the meeting with Putin to take place: that he come to Moscow unaccompanied by CIA agents and diplomatic personnel. Trump's emissary was not even allowed to come accompanied by a translator.
According to the WSJ, the Russian side studied the psychological profile of the people with whom Donald Trump returned to the White House at the beginning of his second term and with whom he could discuss a possible agreement on Ukraine, an agreement that would be favorable to Moscow.
The first to be considered was Keith Kellogg, a former lieutenant general in the US Army who was later appointed US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Russian intelligence services tipped off Putin that Kellogg's daughter had a charity in Ukraine, which was a red flag for Moscow.
In addition, before Trump officially takes his second term on January 20, 2025, Tucker Carlson relayed to Kellogg that Putin is ready to speak directly with a US representative, an offer that the former general ignored.
Consequently, Russian interest turned to Witkoff, who had originally been assigned to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas to end hostilities in the Gaza Strip.
Six meetings between Witkoff and Putin
Steve Witkoff went to Russia six times to discuss peace terms between Russia and Ukraine. The first meeting, the one reported by the WSJ, took place in the first half of February. Further meetings took place in March and then in April.
At the latter, Putin and Witkoff spoke for more than four hours, this time in St. Petersburg, not Moscow.
The last time he met with Vladimir Putin was on December 2, at which Witkoff was accompanied by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law.
“I am very glad to see you.” Putin welcomes Trump envoys Witkoff and Kushner to Kremlin to discuss US peace plan in Ukraine
Even before the meeting, Putin warned Europe that it would suffer a quick defeat if it went to war with Russia and rejected European counter-proposals for peace in Ukraine, considering them totally unacceptable to Russia.
“I'm very glad to see you,” Putin told Witkoff and Kushner when they met at the Kremlin.
“It's a magnificent city,” Witkoff told Putin after the US envoy earlier walked with Jared Kushner and the Russian leader's envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Red Square near the mausoleum of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin.
Dmitriev and Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov also attended the Kremlin meeting, accompanied by translators.
