US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who is negotiating with Russia to end the war against Ukraine, violated established diplomatic protocol - during three meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he did not have his own translator and relied on translators from the Kremlin. About this reported in NBC News, citing sources among American and Western officials.
The meetings took place on February 11, March 13, and April 11 in Moscow and St. Petersburg. One Western official noted that Witkoff used Putin’s translators: "If they speak Russian to each other, he doesn't know what they're talking about."
Steve Witkoff, a former developer and crypto trader, does not speak Russian. Experts say that refusing to use an American translator could have resulted in the loss of important nuances that cannot be verified. Two former US ambassadors stressed that this practice creates risks for the accuracy of communications and internal minutes of negotiations.
Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, called it “a very bad idea” that put Witkoff “at a disadvantage.” He said the American translator ensures the accuracy of the transcripts for the rest of the government — the so-called “memocom,” which is used by, among others, Keith Kellogg and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to understand agreements with Putin.
In a short video of the meeting released by the Kremlin, Witkoff enters the meeting room alone, without advisers or experts. When a woman joins him, he asks, “A translator? From the embassy? Okay.”
A separate concern was privacy: Witkoff's plane is not equipped with government-issued secure communications, although he uses a secure phone and has made calls from the embassy.
The White House said that Witkoff was acting in coordination with the State Department and following security protocols, but neither the State Department nor Witkoff's team provided detailed comment.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he could not sleep because of the war in Ukraine. Trump noted that negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin was extremely difficult, because, according to Trump, he “wants everything at once” — referring to Ukraine, and In recent weeks, according to sources, Trump has privately complained that Putin is not in the mood for peace, and both sides refuse to compromise. He even asked advisers whether Putin has changed since his first term, and expressed surprise at the bombing of civilian areas.
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