It sounds crazy, but it actually happened. At the end of April, Steve Witkoff traveled to Moscow to meet with Putin for the fourth time this year. Something strange and very dangerous happened during this trip. President Donald Trump's special envoy disregarded one of the most basic security protocols by not using his own translator during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and instead opted for an interpreter, who - as we will see - was made available to him by the Kremlin.
But let's go step by step. On his last trip, Witkoff chose to go alone and not be accompanied by advisors or experts, as American officials usually do when conducting delicate and complex negotiations.
Entering the room where the meeting took place, Putin, his special adviser Yuri Ushakov, Russian ambassador to the United States between 1998 and 2008, and Kirill Dmitriev, his special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, were present, there was only one other person sitting on the other side of the table. A woman. Steve Witkoff, turning to her, asks: "Interpreter?", the woman nods. Witkoff adds: “From the embassy?” and receives confirmation again. Too bad it wasn't like that.
Let's dwell on this aspect for a moment. The only thing that could make sense in this exchange of pleasantries is that Witkoff could have thought that the woman had been sent by the American embassy as an interpreter. Aside from the fact that it would have been quite easy for Witkoff to guess that a possible companion, placed at his disposal by the American embassy in Moscow, she would have arrived together with him and not separately, what happened has surpassed the wildest imagination of any author of Spy stories.
Steve Witkoff, in charge of negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, met with Putin in Moscow for several hours, not accompanied by an interpreter provided by the US embassy, but kindly offered by Russia. If this, on a superficial reading, might seem just an irrelevant detail, it is clear that it is not. If during the talks, Witkoff's interlocutors spoke to each other in Russian, he had no opportunity to understand what they said. Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia, said that using the Kremlin's interpreter was "a bad idea" that Witkoff put "in a situation of real disadvantage".
But the matter is even more serious. The woman he used as his interpreter is not just a translator for the Russian government. Her name is Natalia Koshkina. She can be seen alongside many important Russian figures such as Lavrov (picture 1), Medvedev (picture 2), Putin himself (picture 3), but she also served for two years as Third Secretary of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels. She also served as an advisor to the Russian delegation to the OPCW, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague (picture 4). None of these roles can be considered exclusively interpreting. These elements are much more compatible with the profile of a Russian spy than with that of a simple interpreter. It is therefore not surprising to see her also behind the director of the SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service, Sergey Naryshkin (picture 5).
Now that we know a little more about who acted as Witkoff's interpreter during the meeting, it is worth making a second consideration. The gravity of what happened is also in the merits. Natalia did not translate on behalf of the US President's special envoy a few words exchanged during an informal dinner, which in itself would have been serious enough. The Putin-Witkoff meeting was extremely important. An official meeting in which the lives of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people were at stake. An interpreter can influence the negotiation. Every word that is said, the way it is said, the feeling and even the way one simply looks at the other party can convey a message.
Now, having a Russian spy on your side of the table, acting as an interpreter, is inherently dangerous. The fact that Witkoff agreed to this signals to the other side that you are either incompetent or a very vulnerable target for deception and disinformation. And that, unfortunately, actually happened in late April.
There is only one joke to be made here. Natalia Koshkina (top image) has proven to be a valuable asset. Not to the White House, but to her employer, Moscow.
