Vladimir Putin greets Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, September 5, 2026
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UPDATE, SEPT 9:
EA’s Cormac Smith spoke with Pakistan TV’s Sana Maqbool on Wednesday, offering further analysis of the “diplomacy of the doomed” by Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in their visits to Moscow and Kyiv.
What happened, from Ukraine’s point of view, was absolutely pointless. These people have absolutely no experience in international diplomacy.
This weekend in particular they showed how naive and crass they are.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: EA’s Cormac Smith joined India’s WION on Sunday to evaluate the visit of Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
Cormac notes the “typical” Russian tactic of negotiating from a maximum position, in this case Ukraine’s surrender of more territory and the lack of meaningful security guarantees for Kyiv.
Meanwhile, “it is very hard to know what position with which the Americans have approached these negotiations”. He consider if the past demand for the Trump camp for Ukraine’s capitulation has shifted with the recent visit of CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Moscow.
In any case, “it is clear that there will not be an instant halt to hostilities”.
