Transcript of News X interview, 12 April

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBgTqSZe7lM


NewsX World:

0:05
Moving on, US envoy Steve Witkoff met the Russian president Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, as Donald Trump urged the Russian president to get moving on a ceasefire in Ukraine. The Kremlin said that the meeting lasted over four hours and focused on finding solutions for Ukraine. This was Witkoff’s third meeting with Putin this year, and the special envoy from Russia, Kirill Dmitriev, called the meeting productive. After the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said that the meeting emphasized the Ukrainian settlement.

And however, the talks come at a time when US-Russia talks aimed at agreeing on a ceasefire ahead of a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine appear to have stalled due to disagreements over the terms for a complete halt in hostilities.

0:52
In recent days, Ukrainian officials have sent Washington a list of targets they believe Russia has struck in violation of the energy infrastructure ceasefire agreed upon by the two countries last month. Trump has further expressed frustration with Putin over the state of talks with respect to the ceasefire. The US president also wrote on social media, “Russia has to get moving. Too many people are dying, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war.” Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also said that Putin and Witkoff might discuss the possibility of the Russian leader meeting Trump face to face.

1:33
All right, Mr. Gilbert Doctorow, Russian affairs expert, is joining us on the program. Sir, appreciate you taking out the time and speaking with us. Well, when the conversations actually imply that they were productive, what do you make out of it? Does this mean that this four-hour conversation between Mr. Witkoff and Vladimir Putin is going to be, you know, a step in the direction of peace, or do you think that probably unless you get Ukraine to be on the same page, it’s not possible?

Gilbert Doctorow, PhD: 2:06
It’s very difficult to make sense out of these talks that are going on between the Trump administration and Mr. Putin and his team. The first thing I’ll say is that from the Russian perspective, the visit by Witkoff was not expected. He was added to Mr. Putin’s otherwise very full agenda in St. Petersburg because he was there for a conference with his senior naval officers, finance minister, and primary manager of Russia’s commercial and military shipbuilding. And they were talking about plans for adding to the Russian fleet in the coming years. That took most of his day.

2:52
Mr. Witkoff probably added St. Petersburg to his travel plans because he is in Oman today. And he’s in Oman largely because it was set up for him by the Russians. So it was appropriate that he would look for a meeting with Mr. Putin before he goes into the meeting with the Iranian foreign minister today.

Otherwise, I see in the meeting and the visit by Witkoff yesterday, very promising [glitch] we’re reading tea leaves. What do I mean by tea leaves? First fact, he didn’t come by himself this time. He came with his wife. That added a personal note, which suggests a growing warmth in the relationship and gives us reason for optimism that whatever Mr. Trump is saying publicly, there is something serious going on, hinting at a Russian-American agreement on how [glitch] the ceasefire. The ceasefire is the least of it. The Russians are only interested in the end game. How will this war end? Does America agree to Russia’s acquiring permanently and legally the territories of the Donbass, the four oblasts that it has recaptured largely? Is America keen on establishing fully normal relations with Russia and lifting sanctions?

4:24
These are the questions that move the Russians. And I have reason to believe, not just because he took his wife and they did a little bit of high-level sightseeing. They went to see the most important synagogue in St. Petersburg and most important synagogue in the Tsarist Empire when it was built. And they visited the most important Russian Orthodox church in St. Petersburg, the St. Isaac’s Cathedral. He spent three hours in conversations with Dmitriev at the Grand Hotel Europe. That is not a normal venue for high-level talks. And it persuades me that this was a last-minute decision to come and visit Petersburg.

The Russians did not have much time, because Witkoff would be on a very tight schedule ahead of his flight to Oman. Therefore the meetings they had were all in downtown Petersburg in unusual venues. The meeting that was four and a half hours with Vladimir Putin was in what’s called the Presidential Library, a building about which none of us has heard much. It was opened in 2009 and dedicated to Boris Yeltsin, who had died a couple of years earlier. But you never see it. It wasn’t mentioned in any government meetings. So it was chosen precisely to keep Mr. Witkoff’s stay in Petersburg tightly controlled within a few downtown city blocks of Petersburg.

5:55
All of this means, suggests to me, that the visit to discuss the situation in Iran was very important to Trump and Witkoff. They take the Russian efforts very seriously. And that is an example of why Mr. Trump is keen on reestablishing normal relations with Russia, because there are things which the countries can cooperate on.

NewsX: 6:21
Right. So one last question before we let you go. Do you think that America has gone out on a limb and Donald Trump is also staking his reputation when it comes to, in fact, striking a deal– which Donald Trump is good at– between Ukraine and Russia that eventually will bring peace in this part of the world? But so far, there hasn’t been a credible overture, if we can call it that, from President Putin towards peace.

Doctorow: 6:52
Well, he has stated specifically the conditions under which Russia would implement in full [edit] partial ceasefires. And they have been stymied by opposition from the [glitch] this free navigation in the Black Sea. One of the conditions is the lifting of bank sanctions on the bank that handles all Russian agricultural exports.

The EU refuses to do that. So there are obstacles that are created to the conclusion of even a partial ceasefire, which Russia has nothing to do with. It’s the EU’s attempt to sabotage the whole business. Nonetheless, I think it’s a big mistake to focus all attention on a partial ceasefire, full ceasefire. That’s not it.

7:45
The question is, where does this war end? Europe doesn’t want it to end. And we are all aware of that. So the question for the Russians is what is Mr. Trump going to do to Europe to get them to back off and let a peace be made?

That is the real question, Not Mr. Putin’s willingness, non-willingness to end the war. That’s a phony question that is put up by England and by France, who want desperately for this war to continue.

NewsX: 8:12
So always a pleasure having you. Thank you so much for speaking to News X World.

Moving on. Well, Hamas says it is hope–

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Published by gilbertdoctorow

Gilbert Doctorow's latest book, "War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023" is a unique contribution to literature on the war thanks to the author's reports on the Russian home front written during his periodic visits to St Petersburg at a time when Russia no longer issued visas and nearly all Western journalists had left the country. Doctorow's two-volume "Memoirs of a Russianist" published in 2020 also constitutes a category of its own, consisting largely of diary entries rather than reminiscences written decades later.. Volume 2 focuses on the community of 50,000 expatriate managers working and living in Moscow during the 1990s, about which none of his peers has yet to write. Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher and actor in Russian affairs going back to 1965. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1967), a past Fulbright scholar, and holder of a Ph.D. with honors in history from Columbia University (1975). After completing his studies, Mr. Doctorow pursued a business career focused on the USSR and Eastern Europe. For twenty-five years he worked for US and European multinationals in marketing and general management with regional responsibility. From 1998-2002, Doctorow served as the Chairman of the Russian Booker Literary Prize in Moscow. During the 2010-2011 academic year, he was a Visiting scholar of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University. Mr. Doctorow is a long-time resident of Brussels.

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