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The Hill: Steve Witkoff has no business negotiating between Russia and Ukraine [View all]
The Hill - Steve Witkoff has no business negotiating between Russia and Ukraine
by Alexander J. Motyl, opinion contributor - 03/27/25 9:00 AM ET
The real estate developer Steve Witkoff, whom President Trump made his plenipotentiary in foreign conflicts, is either foolish, mendacious or naive — or perhaps all of the above. Whatever the case, he has no business negotiating something as complex and complicated as a putative peace between an imperialist Russia and its victim, Ukraine.
In his recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Witkoff made a whole series of astoundingly absurd claims. I’ll discuss only three: that Russia’s illegitimately elected president Vladimir Putin is not “a bad guy”; that Putin prayed for Trump after the failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania last July; and that Russia has “reclaimed” the territories it currently occupies.
Let’s start with the third claim. One “reclaims” things one once possessed and “claims” things one wants to possess. The Russian Federation never possessed these territories; neither did its predecessor, the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. The Russian Empire did possess them, but only after taking them from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Crimean Tatars and the Ukrainian Cossacks.
Either Witkoff doesn’t understand what that silly little prefix “re-” means, or he’s legitimizing Putin’s expansion into all the territories once held by imperial Russia. Since Witkoff is “100 percent” certain that Russia doesn’t want to “absorb Ukraine,” we’re left with his indifference to grammar.
All one can say is heaven forbid that such a special envoy should have a hand in producing a diplomatically portentous document that could affect the lives of millions.
/snip
by Alexander J. Motyl, opinion contributor - 03/27/25 9:00 AM ET
The real estate developer Steve Witkoff, whom President Trump made his plenipotentiary in foreign conflicts, is either foolish, mendacious or naive — or perhaps all of the above. Whatever the case, he has no business negotiating something as complex and complicated as a putative peace between an imperialist Russia and its victim, Ukraine.
In his recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Witkoff made a whole series of astoundingly absurd claims. I’ll discuss only three: that Russia’s illegitimately elected president Vladimir Putin is not “a bad guy”; that Putin prayed for Trump after the failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania last July; and that Russia has “reclaimed” the territories it currently occupies.
Let’s start with the third claim. One “reclaims” things one once possessed and “claims” things one wants to possess. The Russian Federation never possessed these territories; neither did its predecessor, the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. The Russian Empire did possess them, but only after taking them from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Crimean Tatars and the Ukrainian Cossacks.
Either Witkoff doesn’t understand what that silly little prefix “re-” means, or he’s legitimizing Putin’s expansion into all the territories once held by imperial Russia. Since Witkoff is “100 percent” certain that Russia doesn’t want to “absorb Ukraine,” we’re left with his indifference to grammar.
All one can say is heaven forbid that such a special envoy should have a hand in producing a diplomatically portentous document that could affect the lives of millions.
/snip
6 replies
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