Trump's top negotiator accused of breaking protocol in talks with Putin
Donald Trump's top negotiator broke with long-standing protocol by using the Kremlin's translators for three high-level meetings with Vladimir Putin, officials have claimed.
Steve Witkoff, a real estate tycoon and cryptocurrency trader, has been tasked with negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine and has met with Putin four times in three months.
Mr Witkoff did not employ his own interpreters during meetings with the Russian president on Feb 11, March 13 and April 11, a US official and two European officials told NBC News.
'If they speak to each other in Russian, he doesn't know what they are saying,' one Western official said.
Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia, called Mr Witkoff's decision 'a very bad idea' that put him at a 'real disadvantage'.
'Language is never the same'
'I speak Russian and have listened to Kremlin interpreters and US interpreters at the same meeting, and the language is never the same,' Mr McFaul told NBC News.
A video of Mr Witkoff's visit to the Kremlin on April 25 showed Putin greeting him with open arms. He did not appear to be accompanied by advisers who usually support US officials at negotiations.
When a woman joined Mr Witkoff on his side of the table, he pointed at her and said, 'Interpreter? From the embassy? OK.'
Mr McFaul also said that using a US interpreter also ensures a more accurate written account of the meeting for the rest of the government, known as a memorandum of conversation or 'memcon'.
'At the end of every meeting that I attended, I debriefed the interpreter to make sure we heard everything correctly, to get the 'memcom' exactly right. You can't do that using a Russian official,' he said.
This could create problems for other senior members of the Trump administration such as Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, and special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg, Mr McFaul said. 'How does Kellogg know what Witkoff agreed to with Putin? He only knows it through a 'memcom,'' he added.
Mr Witkoff's conduct in high-profile negotiations has previously been called into question, with another source previously saying he was a 'nice guy, but a bumbling f---ing idiot'.
His meetings with Putin have also been criticised by the Ukrainians after he appeared to repeat Kremlin talking points in an interview with Tucker Carlson.
'I think the largest issue in that conflict are these so-called four regions – Donbass, Crimea, you know the name Lugansk, and there are two others. They're Russian-speaking,' he told the former Fox News host.
Mr Witkoff was initially brought in by Mr Trump as special envoy for the Middle East but his role has been expanded to cover the war in Ukraine.
Anna Kelly, a White House deputy press secretary, said in a statement that Mr Witkoff 'abides by all security protocols in coordination with the State Department'.
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