ANALYSIS – According to various news reports, Joe Biden is either conducting secret, backchannel talks with the Kremlin behind the back of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, or senior ex-U.S. officials have gone rogue and are breaking the law.
NBC News first reported on these unofficial talks between the former American officials and high-ranking Kremlin members, including meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in early June.
The goal, it was said, was to quietly and discreetly lay the groundwork to end the war in Ukraine.
The problem is Ukraine didn't know about the secret talks.
Many consider that a betrayal.
Another problem arises with the White House's denial that it has sanctioned any backchannel talks with Moscow.
And now a former U.S. official directly involved in the talks has reportedly confirmed the discussions, which included former Pentagon leaders, to The Moscow Times.
According to the outlet, the ex-official said: “There is an eminent need for track 1.5 diplomacy when the world gets closed off as it has now.”
Track 1.5 diplomacy is the term for covert discussions in between official government negotiations (track 1 diplomacy) and unofficial expert dialogues (track 2).
In this case, they are reportedly being used to understand each other's red lines and mitigate potential conflicts or escalation.
The secret meetings have been taking place at least twice a month, often conducted online, claims the source, adding that: “I have been visiting Moscow at least every three months.”
Team Biden, however, denies they approved any talks. On Thursday National Security Council acting spokesperson Adrienne Watson tweeted that the U.S. has not asked current or former officials to conduct back-channel communication with anyone:
The United States has not requested official or former officials to open a back channel and is not seeking such a channel. Nor are we passing any messages through others. When we say nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine, we mean it.
If we are to believe the White House, and these ex-officials are not officially sanctioned by the U.S. government, then they are breaking the law – federal law.
The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799) criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized American citizens with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States.
I would say Russia is having a dispute with the U.S. right now.
But let's put that aside for now because – no one believes the Biden White House anyway.
So, what is Biden hoping to achieve with these talks?
This tweet from Kyiv Post Special Correspondent Jason Jay Smart, who calls the talks a ‘betrayal of Ukraine' by the U.S., highlights the key takeaways from the report.
Among the points, according to The Moscow Times reporting, the ex-U.S. officials are softening the ground for concessions to Russia regarding their ‘national security concerns.' And that means giving the Russians an offramp where they don't suffer a humiliating defeat.
The ex-official said: “now they're at war — suffering a humiliating defeat is not an option for these guys.”
And it includes knowing where Vladimir Putin's real red lines are. “If Russia thought it might lose Crimea,” the ex-official said, “it would almost certainly resort to [using] tactical nuclear weapons.”
But that's not a lot to go on.
According to the source, the greatest issue they saw was that the Russians couldn't describe exactly what they wanted and needed.
“They don't know how to define victory or defeat. In fact, some of the elites to whom we spoke had never wanted the war in the first place…”
Meanwhile, based on reporting from NBC and comments from the White House, the discussions took place with the administration's knowledge, but Team Biden insists not at its direction.
That sounds like a very fine line, politically and legally.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Ukraine seems to serve multi faceted goals for Biden, his family business, dems, rinos, and the UN. A huge slush fund by FTX founder/dem operator was created (and hushed up quickly when caught). A war was started satisfying the military complex, and now Biden is going for cud dos, by ending this war before the election. We have no idea how many millions, or trillions of taxpayer dollars, are floating around, or where it went.
Americans know we can trust globalists and their globalist puppets will always lie to us; doj, fbi, cdc, irs, usps, cia, fisa, tsa, ss, fda, fcc, un, nato etc . . . . .
The “Big Guy” looking for more back door payouts. That’s the main goal.
The level of corruption by this President (God, I hate to say that) is beyond belief. There’s GOT to be some $$$ in there for Biden to be talking with the enemy.
Biden is ? Susan Rice is the cause of it all.
How about telling Putin that if Russia uses nukes of any kind in Ukraine that his country will receive the same treatment from Ukraine. Does Putin really want a war with NATO?