‘He’s Not a Bad Person’ – Steve Witkoff’s Fulsome Assessment of Meeting Putin

Interviewed by Tucker Carlson for his YouTube show, Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy, spoke in barely concealed admiration of Russian President Vladimir Putin following their meetings in Moscow. His positive view of the Kremlin’s leader was only matched by Carlson’s description of Witkoff as “the most effective American diplomat in a generation.”

Talking about his two meetings with Putin on Feb. 11 and March 13, Witkoff said “I liked him. I think he was honest with me.”

Carlson said that assessment was shared by “all the presidents in the world” including Joe Biden: “They may not agree with what Russia is doing, but they say: ‘You know, Putin is an open person,’” Carlson said.

Witkoff, in response to criticism of the bilateral meetings with Russia, said that as the “president’s emissary” he had been tasked with attempts to restore [US-Russian] relations and to start productive discussion on “how to end this conflict.”

He said that Putin had criticized the Biden administration’s refusal to enter in dialogue. “President Putin said to me at our first meeting: ‘How do we resolve a conflict with the head of a major nuclear power if we don’t establish trust and good relations with each other? … I haven’t spoken to Joe Biden in three and a half years’,” Witkoff said.

He summed up his meetings with Putin as the first steps in what will become “a good, healthy conversation” between the two countries saying: “President Putin, to his credit, has sent every signal to President Trump that this is the path he wants to take.”

In addition to describing Putin as “not a bad person,” Witkoff said: “It’s a complicated situation, this war, and all the components that led to it. You know, it’s never just one person who’s right.”

Witkoff added that after the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump, Putin went to church and prayed for him: “… not because he could be the president of the United States, but because they had a friendship, and he prayed for his friend.” He added telling Trump of this, “He [Trump] was clearly touched.”

In speaking about the situation on the battlefield Witkoff repeated the contentions that Ukrainian troops have been surrounded in Russia’s Kursk region – despite the claim being contradicted by the Ukrainian authorities, independent experts, and even US intelligence assessments.

He added that Putin told him Kursk wasn’t the only instance where his troops had surrounded and isolated Kyiv’s forces.

“President Putin told me that: ‘… the Ukrainians have people trapped there [Kursk]’... he then asked: ‘What should I do in this or that area where we have people surrounded and they don’t want to surrender? Should I kill them? How can I make them surrender? I’m happy not to kill everyone. I’m happy to make people wave a white flag if I can make them.’”

Asked about Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO (and Moscow’s declaration this would be an unacceptable red line) or failing that to at least be offered “Article 5 protection,” Witkoff said:

“I think [Ukraine’s president] Zelensky and his right-hand man Yermak, have pretty much accepted that Ukraine will not become a member of NATO. There has been a lot of talk about whether they could have Article 5 protection… from the US or from European countries without being a member of NATO? I think that’s open to debate… but… If there is a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia the consensus is that Ukraine cannot be a member of NATO.”

Asked by Carlson about European fears that if Russia “wins” in Ukraine Putin would “want to march on Europe,” Witkoff simply replied “100% no.” He then went further saying he didn’t believe Moscow wanted to “absorb” the whole of Ukraine:

“… The Russians have what they want: They got back these five regions. They have Crimea. They got what they wanted. So what else do they want?” He then went on to say that the main ongoing problem to resolving the war is the issue of [the occupied] territories.

In another echo of the Kremlin propaganda line Witkoff said that the “Russian speaking residents” of these regions [Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson] had overwhelmingly indicated they wanted to be part of the Russian Federation in referendums – a process that most of the world thinks were not only illegal but were held under occupation, subject to coercion (sometimes at gunpoint) and falsification in the absence of independent observers.

He then mentioned, what he called “the elephant in the room” - Ukrainian constitutional issues that prevented the ceding of territories despite being under de facto Russian control and then asked the question: “If the world recognizes these [five regions] as Russian territories, will this end [the war] and will Zelensky survive politically if he recognizes this?”

Needless to say, international media and analysts expressed concern (in the case of Ukrainian media outrage) that Witkoff’s commentary seemed to spout almost verbatim Putin’s avowed red lines for peace, was filled with half-truths and reiterated many of “Moscow’s lies.”

In particular, his assertion that the remaining obstacle to peace was the future of (and Kyiv’s agreement to give up) the occupied territories. He seemed to suggest that these should remain as part of Russia, including by implication, those parts of the contested regions that remain under Ukrainian control. In general, comments on Ukrainian social media expressed fears for the country’s future as the US continues to “hand over the keys to the kingdom” before negotiations proper have even started.