On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the controversy over a leaked phone call between Steve Witkoff and Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, suggesting that it may have been a “fake.”
The Russian leader also pushed back against allegations that Witkoff is unduly sympathetic to Moscow, describing him as an “intelligent leader” who was accurately conveying the position of his country.
Given his assignment from US President Donald Trump, “it would have been surprising if he cursed us with obscenities” in the conversation, Putin said.
His comments came as speculation continued to mount about the provenance of the audio, which Bloomberg had released in transcript form without a byline or dateline to shield its origins.
Speculation has filled the vacuum, with no details emerging about how the exchange was obtained or supplied to the outlet.
Europe, US or “somebody on the Russian side?”
A senior Trump administration official told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that he believed the leak stemmed from a foreign intelligence service targeting Ushakov, who was recorded both in conversation with Witkoff and Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s economic envoy.
A European security source told the same outlet that many governments would have been capable of monitoring Ushakov’s conversations because he was using an unsecured mobile line, but that he suspected the source of the leak was someone within Europe.
Even so, he added that Russian actors could not be excluded, noting internal rivalries over Dmitriev’s role as a conduit to the Kremlin.
Daniel Hoffman, a former CIA station chief in Moscow, told The Guardian: “It’s really hard to speculate. It could be 100 million different things, including somebody on the Russian side trying to hurt Witkoff’s reputation.”
Another former senior intelligence official told the outlet that numerous agencies could have intercepted the call but that he considered it most plausible that the source was within the US system.
“There are different ways of intercepting calls, including traditional signals intelligence methods, cyber-attacks, and having access to the devices, so anything is theoretically possible, but my strong suspicion is that this came from the US side, and if that’s the case, you have two entities who are capable of doing this, the CIA and NASA,” he said.
A different intelligence official told The Guardian that while it was unsurprising that an intelligence agency would be able to intercept the call, the decision to leak it was stunning.
Exposing the capability would almost certainly prompt Ushakov to change devices and habits, stymying future intelligence-gathering efforts.
“Hybrid war” against Moscow?
In the wake of the leak, Trump defended Witkoff’s role in the conversation, describing it as a “standard thing” that “a deal maker does.”
Meanwhile, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, said the leak “proves one thing,” adding: “Special envoy Witkoff talks to officials in both Russia and Ukraine nearly every day to achieve peace, which is exactly what President Trump appointed him to do.”
However, the transcript drew global condemnation for the perception that Witkoff had been “coaching” officials close to Putin in how to win favor and approval from the US president at the expense of national interests.
Some Republicans saw the exchange as evidence that the administration is leaning toward Moscow in its effort to end the war.
Don Bacon, a Republican congressman from Nebraska, wrote on X that “it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians,” adding: “he cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations.”
Brian Fitzpatrick, a member of the Ukraine caucus and fellow Republican, described the leak as “one of the many reasons why these ridiculous side shows and secret meetings need to stop.”
William Taylor, former US Ambassador to Ukraine, told Kyiv Post on Wednesday that Witkoff had “absolutely lost his credibility” in talks.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin also condemned the leaks, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov pointing the finger at Europeans for acting as agents of a “hybrid war” against Moscow to obstruct US-Russia rapprochement.
Fiona Hill, a pre-eminent Russia expert who served on the national security council during Trump’s first term, responded to the leaked call in remarks to The Telegraph on Thursday.
She said it has “all the hallmarks” of a shady business deal designed to exploit Ukraine for financial gain.
“This is basically an elite deal by a group of people who have an interest, not in what’s happening on the ground or what happens to all of the people who are suffering from this, but in themselves. They are the people who can make some money from the deal.”