Vitaly Portnikov: No "peace Plan" Existed
12- 27.11.2025, 23:01
- 23,238
The publication of the transcripts is an operation of the Russian secret services.
The American agency Bloomberg published a transcript of talks between Steve Whitkoff and Putin aide Yuri Ushakov. Trump's special envoy was criticized by both Republican and Democratic representatives. Should we expect a continuation of the political scandal inside the United States?
About this site Charter97.org talked to the well-known Ukrainian political scientist and publicist Vitaliy Portnikov:
- I think that these leaks will not lead to any real consequences for the simple reason that you and I understand perfectly well: Whitkoff acted on the direct orders of Trump, and Trump himself sees nothing extraordinary either in the publication of these conversations, or in their content.
- The transcripts of these conversations provide some insight into how the negotiations between Russian Federation and the US are going. Whitkoff is actually helping to deceive his chief. What did you notice about these transcripts?"
- I don't get the sense that Whitkoff is helping Ushakov deceive Trump. My sense is that Whitkoff is enabling Putin, who in turn is enabling Trump not to pick a fight with Russia. The main thing that Trump wants Putin to do is to create reasons that would help the U.S. president to keep from imposing new sanctions on Russia and from helping Ukraine.
If those reasons are not there, Trump has to move to decisive action because he cannot justify his inaction to the American public. So Putin's main task is to create such occasions. And Whitkoff, by and large, in his conversation with Ushakov, explains to him how Putin must act in order for Trump to succeed in derailing a meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
If Trump talks to Putin and negotiates with him some kind of meeting in Budapest, a renewal of the "peace process," that's a good reason to hold off on sanctions or deny Ukraine new military aid. So, by and large, both Whitkoff is qualitatively and accurately working for Trump, and Ushakov is qualitatively and accurately working for Putin. All that can be deduced from these phone conversations is that both officials are absolutely perfectly fulfilling the wishes of their bosses.
That's why I believe there will be no repercussions from these kinds of conversations. And for me personally, there was nothing new in this transcript at all, because I said from the beginning: Putin's main task is to keep from making any sudden moves and to create opportunities for Trump to assist Russia. And Trump's main task is for Putin to come to him with initiatives and proposals that would allow Trump to say that the peace process is going on, and there is no need to scare Putin or to put hard pressure on him not to give up on this peace process.
I generally think that the biggest achievement along the way is that Trump did not give up on the idea of suspending sanctions against Russia while this pseudo-peace plan is being considered. This is already a very big achievement, but perhaps it has to do with the mood in the American establishment.
And until then, everything went exactly according to this very plan: as soon as it was necessary to solve the issue of new sanctions against Russia or military aid to Ukraine, there was immediately either a conversation between Trump and Putin or a trip to Moscow - and everything stopped.
- Who could be behind this leak?
- I generally believe that we should consider other versions. The publication of the so-called "peace plan", the drafting of this plan, and the disclosure of phone conversations are all the work of the same people: representatives of the Russian political leadership and intelligence services.
- Will the negotiations on this peace plan result in something serious or will it be put on the brakes?
- No, this "peace plan" did not exist from the beginning, and there will be no real serious negotiations. Now the main task of all parties concerned is to negate the consequences of this "peace plan" so that it does not affect the reputation of Donald Trump and does not lead Ukrainians and Europeans to quarrel with him.
And the Kremlin also wants to get out of this story without much damage to its relations with the White House. Since there is an absolute consensus among Russia, Ukraine and European countries not to quarrel with Trump and derail the entire negotiation process, it will soon fade away.
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