Kushner and Witkoff Hold Three-Hour Talks with Putin as New Book Deepens 'Russian Asset' Debate

Former US President Donald Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 5 September that lasted more than three hours, according to reports from Ukrainska Pravda. The meeting came days after The Guardian published an explosive excerpt from Luke Harding’s new book, Betrayal, which reignited the question of whether Trump’s deference to Putin suggests he is a Russian asset.

The Moscow meeting

The envoys first met with Putin’s representative, Kirill Dmitriev, for a 3½-hour lunch before proceeding to the Kremlin for the talks with Putin Ukrainska Pravda, 5 September. The meeting marks the highest-level direct interaction between a Trump emissary and the Russian leader since Trump left office. On 8 September, Putin and Trump discussed the envoys’ subsequent trip to Kyiv over the phone, though no details of that call have been released Ukrainska Pravda, 8 September.

The envoys’ Moscow visit came after the publication of a Guardian review of Harding’s Betrayal, written by historian Lawrence Freedman. The review, headlined “Could Donald Trump be a Russian asset?”, prompted thousands of comments across Europe The Guardian, 2 September. Harding, who wrote the earlier book Collusion on Moscow’s cultivation of Trump, argues that Trump’s behaviour during his second term has remained “as weird and perplexing as during his first.”

Historical context: The Alaska summit

Harding points to the Alaska summit last year, where Trump met Putin at Anchorage airport, rolling out a red carpet and appearing “uncharacteristically nervous” as he waited for Putin to emerge from his plane. At their joint press conference, Trump allowed Putin to speak first — a break from standard protocol that Harding calls “a bizarre act of deference” The Guardian, 2 September.

The historian Sir Lawrence Freedman, reviewing the book, wrote that the evidence “does not prove that Trump is a Russian asset in the classic sense of someone being run by an intelligence service,” but that it raises serious questions about Trump’s motivations The Guardian, 2 September.

Why the timing matters

The Kushner-Witkoff mission to Moscow comes at a critical juncture in the war in Ukraine. The European audience for this outlet will want to know: what did the envoys discuss with Putin for three hours? Neither the White House nor the Kremlin has released a readout, but the fact that Trump and Putin later spoke about the Kyiv leg of the envoys’ trip suggests Ukraine was on the agenda. For Ukraine, any direct line between Trump’s inner circle and the Kremlin raises the risk that decisions affecting the war could be made without Kyiv’s full participation.

The bigger picture: Is Trump a Russian asset?

Harding, in his Guardian Q&A, outlines multiple factors behind Trump’s deference: ideological affinity (MAGA supporters see Russia as an “anti-woke” kindred state), strongman envy (as argued by former White House adviser Fiona Hill), and what Harding describes as Moscow’s decades-long cultivation operation The Guardian, 2 September.

In the absence of a definitive intelligence conclusion, the question remains open. But the pattern of behaviour — from Alaska to the latest Moscow talks — makes it increasingly hard to dismiss as coincidence. For Europe and Ukraine, the implications are clear: if Trump returns to power, his approach to Russia may not be one of deterrence.