2023-07-07 13:11:00
Hidden chats? According to the media NBC News, a group of former senior US officials have been conducting secret talks with Russians close to the Kremlin for several months in order to end the war in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, even participated in a meeting last April, when he was in New York for the UN summit.
These secret meetings, of the “Track Two diplomacy” type (a parallel diplomacy carried out by non-governmental actors during a crisis, Editor’s note), would notably bring together Richard Haass, a former American diplomat, president of the think tank Council on Foreign Relations since 2003. Two other members of this organization, Charles Kupchan, specialist in Europe and Thomas Graham, specialist in Russia, who formerly worked at the White House and the State Department, would also be part of these secret negotiations. Mary Beth Long, a former deputy defense secretary with extensive experience in NATO-related issues was also reportedly involved in the talks.
The names of Russian personalities were not disclosed by the channel’s sources for security reasons, but they would be people from academic and intellectual circles.
Is peace in Ukraine possible? And if yes, how ?
During these meetings, some of the thorniest topics of the war in Ukraine would be discussed. In particular the fate of the territories occupied by the Russians since 2014, such as Crimea or Donbass, where a large part of the population is mainly pro-Russian. President Zelensky maintains that he does not want to negotiate peace with Russia before having recovered the lost territories. An operation that “is not realistic” according to information gleaned by NBC News from anonymous sources evoking the opinion of American soldiers and dignitaries. Some territories would be unrecoverable for Ukraine.
The purpose of these secret talks is to maintain contact with the Russian government. The channel does not know how often these meetings take place, but at least one meeting was held in Moscow.
The Biden administration has been informed of these meetings, but does not approve of them. Several American diplomats have told the channel that it does not bode well to discuss the fate of Ukraine without Ukraine. This might weaken kyiv.
In Crimea, at the outpost of the Russian war in Ukraine
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