Former US officials met privately with Russia for Ukraine peace talks: report
WASHINGTON – Three former US national security officials met privately with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York earlier this year, hoping to lay the groundwork for possible negotiations to end Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
The April talk – which was intended to be kept confidential, but was reported by NBC News Thursday – revolved around potential off-ramps for the conflict.
Topics reportedly included the fate of Russian-held Ukrainian territory that Kyiv may not be able to liberate in its current counteroffensive.
The officials, who spoke to Lavrov with the Biden administration’s knowledge but not at its direction, held the meeting to keep communications open with the Kremlin and search for opportunities for future compromise that could be used in negotiations, according to NBC — which cited four former and two current US officials in its report.
The discussion, which lasted for several hours, occurred while Lavrov was in the US for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the report “!!FAKE!!” and “Western media disinformation” in a Telegram post Thursday afternoon.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates told reporters on board Air Force One Thursday that he was “not going to speak for any private citizens who are not members of the administration” and added: “Our focus is on continuing to help Ukraine succeed on the battlefield so they can negotiate from a position of maximum strength on their terms and on no one else’s.”
“Track Two diplomacy”
The April engagement was one of several recent high-level, backdoor talks between prominent US and Russian officials as the 16-month-old war drags on with no clear end in sight, according to the report.
Other talks reportedly have included Russian foreign policy experts from academia, major think tanks and research institutes who are believed to have some clout with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other key Kremlin decision-makers.
Such discussions are known as “Track Two diplomacy,” in which private, influential citizens not currently employed by the government hold unofficial engagements to drive conflict resolution – though the April talk was more of a “Track 1.5,” since Lavrov is currently a senior Russian official.
The strategy is often used to drive international discussions among policy influencers when formal, high-level engagements are rare, as is the case of the US and Russia.
On the American side, the discussions have reportedly involved key former national security officials in both Bush administrations — including Richard Haass, former National Security Council member and special assistant to George H.W. Bush, as well as George W. Bush’s former Assistant Secretary of Defense Mary Beth Long and former NSC Senior Director for Russia Thomas Graham.
Some Democrats have also been involved, including Charles Kupchan, who served on the National Security Council in both the Clinton and Obama administrations.
While Moscow denies the talk took place, the reported timing of the meeting coincides with a lengthy article by Haass and Kupchan – who respectively serve as outgoing president and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank – in the April edition of CFR’s Foreign Affairs magazine that centered on “getting from the battlefield to the negotiating table.”
(Haass, Kupchan, and Graham were all reportedly involved in the April meeting with Lavrov.)
The piece, which foresaw a stalemate in the war, argued that the US should begin setting the stage to propose a cease-fire for the embattled nations to pull back from the front lines and start peace talks.
“Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine“
But such talks run counter to President Biden’s insistence on “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” which holds that the United States will not make decisions for Kyiv about when to end the war.
While the policy is billed as a means to communicate Washington’s support of Kyiv’s sovereign right to determine its own destiny, it’s also meant to put distance between Ukraine and the US.
With Russia continually frustrated that the Biden administration has donated more than $40 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine, there is concern over how the US’ role in the war – or lack thereof – is viewed by Moscow.
For example, the Russian Foreign Ministry alleged that Washington “has deliberately sought to unleash a proxy war” by siding with Ukraine in the conflict “with a view to achieving its central goal of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia.
The message, published just hours after the NBC report, cited a “mass of publicly accessible data and information.”
Some diplomacy experts say exploring potential off-ramps is a far cry from laying out the actual terms of negotiations.
In fact, Track Two diplomacy has been deployed effectively in some major conflicts, most notably in setting up the Oslo accords of 1993 that furthered peace between Israel and Palestinians.
However, it’s unclear how – or even if – such talks are ongoing following Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutinous mercenary march last month.
The attempted coup, which aimed to capture senior Russian defense officials, has shaken up perceptions of Russia’s cohesion and commitment to dragging out the war.
