Witkoff and Kushner back in the saddle

Washington's envoys were slated for Moscow in late August — but that visit never happened. Instead, CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a brief, intriguing dash to the Russian capital. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained it as routine intelligence-to-intelligence contact maintenance.

Axios wrote back then that Ratcliffe «proposed a trilateral meeting between President Trump, Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky during his covert trip to Moscow». Other US media also reported that the CIA director allegedly motivated his peacemaking efforts with the thesis that «Russia is losing». It is not entirely clear, however, what motivates such concern for Russian interests on the part of the Kiev regime’s military-political partners.

Other meetings between high-ranking Russian representatives and their American counterparts also took place in late August and early September — both public and, undoubtedly, behind closed doors. Among the public ones, one should note the conversation between Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and his overseas colleague Scott Bessent on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Newspaper reports say the discussion was productive — though Bessent stated that no far-reaching Russian-American agreements (primarily financial and economic) or sanctions ease should be expected until a peace settlement with Ukraine is reached.

At the same time, Bessent criticized German Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil for turning his back during Siluanov's speech and refusing to take the traditional group photo with him. What explains such «advocacy»? Evidently, the Washington ruling team — or at least part of it — has once again decided to try on the mask of the «good cop» in Russian-Ukrainian-Western relations, using all the accumulated contradictions to its own advantage. This is also confirmed by Germany's protest over the Bundesbank chief's statement that the Americans should have coordinated with European partners the decision to sell euros to support the Japanese yen.

In the end, it came to yet another Russian visit by Trump's special envoys, who then headed for Kiev. Regime head Zelensky proposed declaring a general truce for the duration of talks — clearly hoping for a respite from strikes by the Russian Armed Forces that are undermining Ukraine's socio-economic stability. The Russian side soberly agreed not to strike only where and when Kushner and Witkoff would be present.

At the same time, Bankovaya speculatively suggested the possibility of the visitors flying directly from Moscow to Kiev. «Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the US side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine and land at Kiev Airport or Boryspol Airport», Zelensky said. Of course, any incident with an aircraft would be blamed on Russia under such a scenario.

Ahead of the meeting, Bloomberg reported that the Kremlin did not expect any major breakthroughs from it. However, the American side sought to underscore the seriousness of its intentions — in particular, by including in the delegation a US Treasury official, John Lang, responsible for sanctions policy. This gesture was meant to demonstrate a readiness to discuss not only a peace settlement itself, but also a broader range of issues. Apart from that, September 4 saw Trump hint that he had a new proposal for ending the conflict — without going into details.

The meeting itself, as is customary, was held behind closed doors, but some comments have already emerged. An anonymous White House official described it to Reuters as quite substantive. According to his data, announcements regarding further diplomatic contacts between Washington, Moscow, and Kiev are expected in the near future. At the same time, the source preferred not to disclose details of future initiatives or the exact timing of possible official statements.

On the Russian diplomatic side, a public assessment was given by Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov. According to him, «the Russian side provided clear and comprehensive assessments of the situation developing in the course of the special military operation. In particular, the Russian side highlighted the significant advances made by the Russian armed forces in the combat zone, expressed confidence that the set objectives would be achieved, and, obviously, stressed the need to address all the root causes of the conflict», while «Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, for their part, undertook to draw on the observations and assessments conveyed to them personally by the Russian President regarding possible avenues toward a lasting and peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine during their meetings in Kiev tomorrow». In addition, the meeting did discuss prospects for further cooperation or joint projects.

Here is what else Ushakov noted: «The Americans took particular note of a point emphasized by our President: namely, that the Kiev regime has already ceased to conceal its true nature, having begun the reburial of some of the most prominent Nazi criminals». It is unlikely that Witkoff and Kushner were unaware of these facts before, although in theory one could assume that they were only focused on the settlement’s technical aspects. But it is more likely the usual selective blindness in politics. The Americans will pretend that they «didn't know before» and have now «seen the light» — and may even scold Zelensky for his neo-Nazi leanings — but only at a time and to the extent that it serves their interests.