Donald Trump’s top negotiator broke long-standing protocol by relying on 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.
Witkoff did not use his own interpreters during meetings with the Russian president on February 11, March 13, and April 11, according to one U.S. official and two European officials who spoke to NBC News.
“If they speak to each other in Russian, he doesn’t know what they are saying,” one Western official said.
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, called Witkoff’s decision “a very bad idea” that put him at a “real disadvantage.”
“I speak Russian and have listened to Kremlin interpreters and U.S. interpreters at the same meeting, and the language is never the same,” McFaul told NBC News.
A video of Witkoff’s visit to the Kremlin on April 25 showed Putin greeting him warmly. Witkoff did not appear to be accompanied by the usual advisers who typically support U.S. officials during negotiations.
When a woman joined Witkoff on his side of the table, he pointed at her and asked: “Interpreter? From the embassy? OK.”
‘A bumbling idiot’
McFaul also noted that using a U.S. interpreter helps ensure an accurate written record of the meeting, 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 ‘memcon’ exactly right. You can’t do that using a Russian official,” he said.
He warned this could create issues for other senior members of the Trump administration, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg.
“How does Kellogg know what Witkoff agreed to with Putin? He only knows it through a ‘memcon’,” McFaul added.
Witkoff’s performance in high-stakes diplomacy has previously been questioned, with one source describing him as “a nice guy, but a bumbling f—ing idiot.”
His meetings with Putin have also drawn criticism from Ukrainian officials, particularly after he appeared to echo Kremlin talking points during 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,” Witkoff told the former Fox News host.
Initially appointed by Trump as special envoy for the Middle East, Witkoff’s role has since expanded to include negotiations related to the war in Ukraine.
In a statement, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said Witkoff “abides by all security protocols in coordination with the State Department.”