Steve Witkoff Takes the Kremlin’s Side
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Steve Witkoff , the Trump Administration’s special negotiator on Ukraine, says he’s not taking sides as he tries to mediate an end to the war Vladimir Putin started in 2022. He could have fooled us after a podcast interview this weekend in which Mr. Witkoff parroted one specious Russian talking point after another.
The biggest howler during a long podcast with Tucker Carlson—we’ve struggled to narrow down the list—is Mr. Witkoff’s claim that Mr. Putin “100%” doesn’t want to overrun Europe. Mr. Witkoff suggested Russia doesn’t even want to control Ukraine, with the exception, that is, of the large areas Mr. Putin already occupies.
“Why would they want to absorb Ukraine?” he mused of the Russians. “That would be like occupying Gaza. Why do the Israelis really want to occupy Gaza for the rest of their lives? They don’t.” Does Mr. Witkoff know anything about Russian or Mr. Putin’s history?
Tell this to Georgia and Moldova, among others, and especially the Baltic states. All of these are under threat from Mr. Putin’s long-stated intention to reconstitute a Greater Russian empire, and Georgia endured an invasion and Russian land grab in 2008. Russia doesn’t need to occupy Ukraine if it can impose a Russian-friendly, authoritarian government like the one in Belarus. The Soviets dominated Eastern Europe for more than 40 years.
Another Russian talking point Mr. Witkoff has fallen for concerns the regions of eastern Ukraine Mr. Putin attempted to annex in 2014. “They’re Russian-speaking,” Mr. Witkoff said of these regions. “There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated they want to be under Russian rule.”
Setting aside the many Ukrainians who voted with their feet by fleeing these regions for free parts of Ukraine, Mr. Witkoff thinks a referendum staged by an autocrat under military occupation means something.
Mr. Witkoff also continued the Administration’s bad habit of disparaging allies, as when he described Britain’s peacekeeping proposal for Ukraine as “a posture and a pose.” Europeans, he suggested, have a “simplistic” desire to mimic Winston Churchill. It’s more accurate to say Europeans understand what’s at stake in this major war on their doorstep. Europe will be safer if Ukraine is safe, and Washington can at least not mock allies as they finally take concrete steps to provide for their own and their neighborhood’s defense.
We can understand the need to tone down hostile rhetoric amid negotiations, but the Administration’s propensity to fall for Russian propaganda is something else. Certainly no one would accuse them of following in Churchill’s footsteps. Whether they follow in Neville Chamberlain’s will depend on what the final details are in the peace accord that Messrs. Witkoff and Trump are negotiating.
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Sounds like the WSJ editorial board has been imbibing Prevagen shooters and will one day remember a guy called Reagan.
the trump loyalty pledges for this term also include putin's name ...
... they do seem to willingly bend over whenever Vlad the Impaler shows up.
a low bow before the cult leader, vlad close behind, and it's the maga rotisserie ...