Putin offers his mediation services to Witkoff in Iran talks — Portnikov

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

"This is a carefully built trap meant to catch both Trump and Witkoff. Especially considering that the same person is handling both Iranian-American and Russian-American negotiations. What does Moscow really want? To drag out talks with the U.S. while continuing a war of attrition against Ukraine," Portnikov said.

Tehran, he explained, is also interested in stalling negotiations with the U.S. — either to finish developing a full nuclear cycle or, at the very least, to bury its military nuclear program so deeply that even if some agreement is reached with Washington, Iran can restart the program later, when it decides the time is right.

“For example, after Donald Trump leaves the political scene. And from the point of view of authoritarian regimes, that may not be too far off,” the journalist added.

So if Washington wants some kind of ceasefire deal with Moscow, then the U.S. shouldn’t be escalating tensions with Russia — it should, instead, be showing how much it supposedly needs Russia. In other words, the U.S. should talk to Putin as a mediator on the Iran issue too, says Portnikov.

“If the U.S. breaks off talks with Iran, it sends the message that they don’t need Putin’s help, that they’re ready to lose a key channel of cooperation. But the Americans believe this pressure could push Putin toward a deal on Ukraine. So Russia, with its whole ‘we’re mediators’ line, and Iran, with its delay tactics and claims that it’s listening to Moscow, are setting a trap: the talks can’t be cut off. Because if you fight with Russia over Ukraine, you lose the Iran mediator. And if you cut off Iran, you lose Russia’s role as mediator. And then you lose that whole channel,” he said.

In the end, Witkoff is just bouncing around between all these shady players, repeating whatever half-baked ideas they feed him — and then passing them on to Trump. Like the idea that “ending the war” means Ukrainian troops pulling out of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. That’s what all this is really about. As if Putin started the war just to grab those four regions, Portnikov concluded.

• U.S. President’s Special Representative Steve Witkoff recently visited Russia. In St. Petersburg, he held a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin that lasted over four hours. The White House described it as a “step toward a ceasefire” in Ukraine.