Expert on reason for leak of Witkoff-Ushakov conversation

The question arises: who is interested in this, and could it become a reason for the disruption of the negotiation process?

If we are talking about the situation related to the negotiations, then, again, I assume that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is not actually interested in stopping the hostilities. He would like to continue pushing the front because he still has that capability and thus achieve the goals of the so-called "special military operation."

We can assume that, in general, everything that is happening now is just another imitation by Vladimir Putin, only it is prepared more meticulously and, it must be admitted, even somewhat elegantly to a certain extent. That is, this is an absolutely cunning game, and the goal of this game is for Ukraine to fall into this trap with all the negative consequences, primarily to stop or limit aid to our country.

Putin wants to do everything possible to make this a reality. And then it would be much easier for Russia.

We can see this leak of the so-called peace plan—'cause it definitely feels like a calculated move, especially cooked up by Russia... Yes, we can attribute this project to Donald Trump, as is usually the case, but the Kremlin's handwriting is very noticeable there.

I think that from the very beginning, Putin may not have wanted these 28 points to be approved because he understood that no one would agree to them, especially Ukraine. And now he says that he is supposedly ready to accept this preliminary plan, but there are signals that the changes he made are unacceptable to the Russians. That is, this already emphasizes that it is not beneficial for Russia to agree on this.

I fully assume that this was the plan from the very beginning: to sow this chaos and discord both within the United States and in Ukraine, and among partners, so that everyone would quarrel among themselves, and Russia would come out unscathed. To say: "See, you cannot agree among yourselves, your communication, and you have very different views, while Russia is ready to stop hostilities as early as tomorrow."

Thus, hostilities would continue on the territory of Ukraine, and no sanctions against Putin or Russia would be introduced. And I want to remind you that it was recently reported that the Americans have prepared new restrictions against Russia, and obviously, the Kremlin also perceives this negatively for itself.

We see that this plan did not work. There was a meeting in Geneva, meetings in Abu Dhabi, and in principle, everything is going more or less normally. That is, Ukraine's position is being accepted, and no discord or chaos has been sown. Especially when we talk about the interaction between Kyiv and Washington. And we see that Trump and the current U.S. administration in general perceive all this positively, that is, no cataclysms have occurred, at least not yet.

I wouldn't rule out that Russia might be putting this Plan B into motion right now. In other words, I can trace the ears behind these leaks and transcripts straight back to Moscow's—they're sticking out plain as day. Because if we are talking about a conversation between representatives of two countries, the United States and Russia, then only these two countries could have had access to all the information, to these conversations. Yes, one can assume that third countries could also have had access, but that is hard to imagine. I assume that all this should have happened through special communication channels available only to the two countries.

And accordingly, these transcripts could have been leaked either by the Americans or by the Russians. I am not sure that the Americans were interested in this, but the Russians certainly were. Although we see that Ushakov states that he does not know where the information about the content of these telephone conversations appeared in the mass media. But obviously, the Russians cannot be trusted.

That is, in fact, Russia may now be trying again to pit us all against each other. And the Americans themselves. That is, now the very administration of Donald Trump is being undermined. Because the content of these conversations is quite strange, to say the least. Trust in it is undermined in the United States. This can cause friction. And there are already enough of them there, especially a year before the midterm elections to Congress. Here, certain politicians may speak out against Trump, against his entourage. Society itself. And this is beneficial to Russia. Trust in the United States from NATO allies is also being undermined. And, of course, Ukraine.

Ukraine may also now find itself in a situation where it does not know how much it can trust the American side if such things are being discussed, which are quite strange. And somehow it looks like negotiations about Ukraine are being held without Ukraine, so to speak.

And that is why it is quite understandable why this so-called peace plan appeared, why the Kremlin's handwriting is traced there, etc.

This could be Plan B, which Putin has been preparing from the very beginning. And it appeared precisely now because Plan A did not work, or did not work to the extent that Moscow would have liked.

Again, this is just an assumption; I do not want to be presumptuous. For now, this scandal is quite fresh; it has just emerged. Perhaps there will be other explanations for this story, and some new data will emerge. But for now, it all looks like one of the parties is interested in this. And with a high probability, it could be the Russian Federation itself.