Russia has said that the leak of a phone call is an unacceptable attempt to undermine talks on a ceasefire in Ukraine and amounts to acts of hybrid warfare, Reuters reports.
Bloomberg News has published a transcript of a conversation between US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s adviser Yuri Ushakov on the 14th of October. During the conversation, Witkoff advises Ushakov on how best to present a peace plan to Trump.
Bloomberg News said it had reviewed the recording of the conversation but did not say how it gained access to the highly sensitive information. Ushakov said the conversation with Witkoff was not intended to be made public and should not have been made public. He told Russian media that
the incident was unacceptable and clearly aimed at undermining talks between Russia and the US.
Ushakov told Kommersant newspaper that some of the conversations took place over encrypted government channels, and it is rare to intercept and leak what was said unless one of the parties did so intentionally. He added that other conversations took place over WhatsApp, and could theoretically be eavesdropped on. Ushakov ruled out the possibility that someone on the call had leaked the conversations.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that media organizations were being used as tools in an information war that Europe was waging against Russia. The aim was to disrupt relations between Moscow and Washington. Meanwhile, Kommersant headlined the interview with Ushakov as “Who set up Steve Witkoff?”
Read also: Putin’s policy plan – Russification and the fight against imaginary neo-Nazis