Sept. 5—In a press conference Sept. 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin reported that Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump, has been acting completely competently in the last several months of exchanges. Witkoff has been sharply criticized for what various unnamed sources called his severe limitations and incompetence in carrying out Trump's diplomacy, which enables him to be used and played, most notably by Putin. That was the theme of a feature story in the war party's leak sheet, Politico, last week, which argued that he should be fired. That story, and other commentaries in the NATO press which picked on its theme was strongly denounced by the White House, and by Vice President JD Vance, who labeled it treasonous, and an attempt to undermine Trump's efforts for peace.

 Asked about the “whole wave of very harsh criticism” against Witkoff coming from the West, and NATO sources, that Witkoff has been “misunderstanding you at the talks” and has been “incorrectly conveying the content of the talks” to Trump, Putin responded:

“I am absolutely convinced that Mr. Witkoff is setting out the position of the U.S. President in his contacts with me and with other members of the Russian leadership team, and not any other. Our talks in Anchorage showed—this was clear from the context of our talks—that he quite accurately conveys to President Trump the position of the Russian side.

“And the fact that he accurately and objectively conveys this position, the position of the American leadership, became absolutely obvious to me during the discussion in Anchorage. Because what Mr. Witkoff and I discussed, we confirmed in full in the presence of President Trump, and he did not object that this was his position.

“The criticism of Witkoff comes from those who don’t like this position, but they don’t like Trump’s own position, that’s what it’s all about. Approaches to the settlement may be different. There are those who say: we need to fight to the last Ukrainian, as some in Europe are now trying to present the matter, and there are those, for example, as representatives of the current U.S. administration, the President himself, who are trying to find a solution, and a solution by peaceful means. And so, the first party, the ‘party of war,’ always attacks… the ‘party of peace,’ and everything else is speculation and some insinuations, attempts to support its position, that’s all.”