Russia strongly condemned the leak of a recording of a call between top advisers to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, calling it an unacceptable attempt to undermine Ukraine peace negotiations and labeling it a form of hybrid warfare. Bloomberg News published a transcript of the October 14 call, in which Trump envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly advised Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, on how to present a Ukraine peace plan to Trump. While Bloomberg confirmed that it reviewed the recording, it did not disclose how it gained access to such a sensitive conversation between officials from the world’s two largest nuclear powers.

Ushakov stated that his discussions with Witkoff were not meant for publication and should not have been leaked. He described the leak as “unacceptable” and said it appeared intended to disrupt Russia-U.S. negotiations. Speaking to Kommersant newspaper, Ushakov noted that some of his conversations were conducted over encrypted government channels, which are rarely intercepted unless deliberately compromised. He also suggested that while some WhatsApp communications could theoretically be accessed, the leak did not appear to originate from the call participants themselves, and he plans to address the matter directly with Witkoff.

In a related statement, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and a Putin investment envoy, dismissed Bloomberg’s reporting of an October 29 call with Ushakov as “fake.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov added that certain media outlets are being used in a hybrid information war by European countries against Russia, aiming to weaken ties with Washington. Bloomberg has not responded to Russian criticism or clarified how it obtained the recordings. Kommersant’s top Kremlin reporter, who interviewed Ushakov, ran the story under the headline: “Who set up Steve Witkoff?”