Vladimir Putin's foreign policy assistant Yuri Ushakov commented on the transcripts of his phone conversations with US President's special representative Steve Witkoff and another advisor to the Russian leader Kirill Dmitriev, which were published by Bloomberg.
As reported by Khvylya, he told this to Russian media.
Unlike Dmitriev, who called the published transcript of his conversation with Ushakov a fake, Putin's assistant did not deny the fact of communication with Witkoff.
"I talk to Witkoff quite often, but the essence of the conversations - they are confidential in nature - I do not comment on. And no one should comment. Someone is leaking, someone is eavesdropping. But not us," Ushakov said.
At the same time, he claimed that supposedly someone is trying to prevent "improvement of relations" between Russia and the US by publishing these conversations.
"It's unlikely this is being done to improve relations that are currently being built. They're being built with difficulty. They're being built through contacts of this kind, among others," the Kremlin official noted.
Ushakov also confirmed that in accordance with preliminary agreement, Witkoff should fly to Moscow next week together with a number of representatives of the US president's administration.
Meanwhile, Dmitriev called the Bloomberg publication a fake. The Russian president's representative stated that "war instigators" are trying to disrupt the peace process by publishing such materials.
Notably, US House of Representatives Democrat Ted Lieu commented on the leaked transcript of White House special envoy Steve Witkoff's conversation with Putin's assistant Ushakov.
"Real traitor. Steve Witkoff should be working for the United States, not for Russia," the congressman emphasized.
In turn, former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul called the leaked transcript of White House special envoy Steve Witkoff's conversation with Putin's assistant Ushakov "shocking" and emphasized that US government representatives should promote America's interests.
"Just shocking. Trump and Putin's call interrupted the momentum that the Ukrainians had before the meeting with Zelensky that Friday. The job of everyone holding national security positions in the US government is to advance American national interests, not the interests of other countries. Especially not the interests of barbaric imperial warmongers like Putin," McFaul wrote.
Note that Bloomberg previously published a transcript of Witkoff and Ushakov's conversation that took place in October. During the conversation, the American official advised the Kremlin on how to use flattery to propose a peace plan on Ukraine to US President Donald Trump. This conversation preceded the scandalous "Trump peace plan" of 28 points.