Current Digest of the Russian Press, Vol. 77, No. 48 – Table of Contents

OKUN: TRUMP SUCCEEDED IN PUSHING EUROPE ASIDE, CONVINCING UKRAINE TO ACCEPT DRAFT PROPOSAL, BUT PUTIN HASN’T ACCEPTED DEAL FOR DONETSK YET

(By Andrei Okun. Republic.ru,Nov. 24, 2025,https://republic.ru/posts/116734. Condensed text:)Washington is in a hurry to end the war [in Ukraine] by the end of the year. A new 28-point peace plan has leaked to the media from the [US President] Donald Trump administration [see Vol. 77, No. 47, pp. 3-7]. The American president did not acknowledge its authenticity, but he gave [Ukrainian President] Vladimir Zelensky time to study it – until Thursday [i.e., US Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27 – Trans.]. The Ukrainian leader, for his part, made a dramatic video address in which he declared that a choice would have to be made. One simple detail is disconcerting about these loud promises of a “quick peace”: Not even the Kremlin has accepted the plan…

RUSSIAN ANALYSTS: UKRAINE, EUROPE USING TALKS TO PULL U.S. BACK TO A POSITION ‘UNACCEPTABLE TO RUSSIA’; ERDOGAN POINTEDLY MENTIONS GRAIN DEAL, BUT RENEWING IT WON’T BRING SETTLEMENT CLOSER

(By Daniil Sechkin. Izvestia,Nov. 25, 2025,p. 1. Condensed text:). . . The US and Ukraine prepared an “updated and refined peace framework” at talks in Geneva. The discussion lasted several hours. The Ukrainian delegation included National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov and Presidential Chief of Staff Andrei Yermak. The US was represented by special envoy [for the Middle East] Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as a group of State Department officials. The main negotiations were held between Kiev and Washington…

MEDUZA: LEAKS OF NEGOTIATORS’ CORRESPONDENCE CONFIRM 28 POINTS BEGAN AS RUSSIAN PLAN; LEAKER STILL UNCERTAIN, SINCE ALL PARTIES HAD MOTIVES

([No author indicated.] Meduza, Nov. 26, 2025, https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/11/27/what-do-the-witkoff-ushakov-and-ushakov-dimitriev-transcripts-reveal-about-u-s-russian-negotiations-who-leaked-them-and-why. Complete text:) Editors’ Note. – On Nov. 25, Bloomberg published an explosive report containing transcripts of two phone calls: one between top Kremlin advisers Yury Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriyev, and another between Ushakov and US presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff. The leak revealed that Witkoff coached Ushakov on how to communicate with Trump, while Dmitriyev provided Washington with a list of Russia’s conditions for initiating a peace settlement with Ukraine. Meduza tackles the two biggest questions in this story: What did we learn from the transcripts? And who could have leaked them?…

PUTIN RESPONDS TO DEVELOPMENTS: LEAKS MIGHT BE FAKES; WITKOFF WILL CONTINUE TALKS WITH RUSSIA; FIGHTING WILL GO ON UNTIL UKRAINIANS WITHDRAW FROM DONETSK BASIN; ZELENSKY CANNOT SIGN DEAL

(By Gennady Petrov. Nezavisimaya gazeta,Nov. 28, 2025,p. 1. Condensed text:). . . At a press conference in Bishkek, the Russian leader spoke about his attitude toward American peace initiatives and related issues, in particular the Bloomberg agency’s publication of a transcript of talks between Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov, Russian presidential special envoy [for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries] Kirill Dmitriyev and US presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff. “These could be some kind of fakes, [or] maybe they are really overheard conversations. Actually, this is [subject to] criminal punishment in our country. Eavesdropping is prohibited. They were put there to spy, and they eavesdropped. Let them mind their own business,” Putin said. He did not comment on the content published by Bloomberg, saying that he did not know “the essence of these wiretaps and leaks.” At the same time, the president spoke quite complimentarily about Witkoff, who, according to Putin, “defends the US position and US interests as he sees them and as those people who delegate him to negotiations with Russia see them.” This coincides with Trump’s point of view. He stood up for Witkoff when a number of Congressionalrepresentatives accused him of surrendering American interests and called for his resignation based on the Bloomberg story. Consequently, Witkoff will continue to have contact with Russia. Ushakov previously reported that Trump’s special representative would arrive in Moscow next week…

RG: YERMAK RESIGNS ON EVE OF UKRAINE-U.S. TALKS IN MIAMI AFTER POLICE RAID, BUT HE RETAINS GRASP ON ZELENSKY ADMINISTRATION; CHARGES UNLIKELY

(By Pavel Dulman and Ivan Sysoyev. Rossiiskaya gazeta,Dec. 1, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:) A Ukrainian delegation arrived in the US yesterday to discuss the peace process in Ukraine. The negotiating process on the US side is led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. As for the Ukrainian team, there has been a forced change…

Author: Irena Shekoyan

ZELENSKY’S TRUSTED CHIEF OF STAFF QUITS AFTER SEARCHES LINK HIM TO KICKBACK PLOT; WESTERN OFFICIAL: YERMAK WAS ‘ALL MINISTERS COMBINED,’ UKRAINE’S MOST POWERFUL NONELECTED OFFICIAL

(By Irena Shekoyan. Kommersant, Nov. 29, 2025,p. 3. Condensed text:)Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andrei Yermak, who has earned a reputation as the country’s éminence grise, has resigned. . . …

SHVETS: ZELENSKY ALLOWS CORRUPTION SCHEMES SINCE THEY HELP EASE THE GOVERNMENT’S WORK; YERMAK’S TASK WAS TO STREAMLINE THE SYSTEM; ZELENSKY’S ONLY OPTION IS TO STICK TO HIS GUNS

(By Marina Berdichevskaya. Republic.ru, Dec. 1, 2025, https://republic.ru/posts/116768. Condensed text:) Editors’ Note. –Ukraine and its president were hit by a perfect storm in November. Ukraine was handed another “peace plan,” which caused a furor because it was apparently drafted by Russia. . . . To find out what the current “negotiating process” might bring, Republictalked to Ukrainian political commentator Leonid Shvets. Our interview was interrupted three times, as the power supply is often cut in Kiev due to Russian attacks…

(By Ivan Rodin. Nezavisimaya gazeta, Nov. 27, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:) The Russian president has signed a decree “On the State Ethnic Policy Strategy of the Russian Federation Through 2036.” The current strategy ends in 2025. . . .

Presidential Decree No. 858, which was signed on the evening of Nov. 25, comprises over 30 pages. In other words, the text of the new ethnic policy strategy is somewhat longer than the current one. Readers are reminded that the current strategy was developed back in 2012, although it has been repeatedly amended – for example, after the Crimea’s accession to Russia [see Vol. 66. No. 12, pp. 3-11]. The document was also significantly amended in 2018: That was when two truly strategic sections appeared there. The first contained target indicators for [the strategy’s] implementation, [and] the second – the expected results of that implementation…

(By Darya Garmonenko. Nezavisimaya gazeta,Nov. 24, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:) Russian Investigative Committee (IC) chief Aleksandr Bastrykin has responded to Russian Federation Communist Party (RFCP) leader Gennady Zyuganov’s petition regarding the persecution of Altai Communists [see Vol. 77, No. 47, pp. 8-11]. . . .

Bastrykin has instructed the head of the IC’s investigative administration for Altai Territory to submit a progress report on the investigation of a criminal case [against two RFCP members] and the arguments presented in Zyuganov’s petition, the IC said…

(By Milana Gadzhiyeva. Izvestia,Nov. 25, 2025,p. 1. Condensed text:)Editors’ Note. – Unemployment in the North Caucasus is three times higher than the Russian average – 7.1% versus 2.1%. This is indicated by data from Rosstat [Federal Statistics Service] that Izvestia has studied. . . .

According to Rosstat, the average unemployment rate in Russia in September was 2.1%. In most federal districts, they range from 1.4% (in the Central Federal District) to 2.7% (in the Siberian Federal District)…

(By Yelizaveta Borisenko. Izvestia, Nov. 28, 2025, p. 2. Condensed text:) Speaking at the Nov. 27 summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Bishkek, [Russian President] Vladimir Putin proposed launching a large-scale program to equip the CSTO’s collective forces with Russian weapons. . . .

Leaders from five countries – Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan – attended the summit. Only Armenia, which had previously suspended its membership in the organization, was not present. However, Yerevan relayed in advance that it was not opposed to the adoption of jointly approved documents in Bishkek…

(By Dmitry Taratorin. Nezavisimaya gazeta, Nov. 27, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:)Oppositionists who do not agree with the course set by[Belarussian opposition leader] Svetlana Tikhanovskaya held a conference in Vilnius with the intention of creating an alternative to her United Transitional Cabinet (UTC). . . .

The founders are confident that it will become a “transitional body of strategic governance and representation of the Belarussian people.”…

(By Daniil Sechkin. Izvestia, Nov. 27, 2025, p. 3. Condensed text:). . . A coup took place in Guinea-Bissau on Nov. 26, when a group of military officers arrested the country’s acting president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo. According to him, the arrest was made by senior military officers led by General Staff chief Horta N’tam. Information later appeared that N’tam himself was arrested, along with his deputy Mamadu Ture and Internal Affairs Minister Botche Candé.

Some of the officers then made televised statements on behalf of the Armed Forces. They announced that the Army was in full control of the situation in the country and said it was necessary to restore order and prevent “electoral fraud.”…

(By Maksim Grishenkin, junior research associate at the Center for African Strategy in BRICS of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for African Studies. Izvestia, Nov. 28, 2025, p. 3. Complete text:) US President Donald Trump’s decision not to invite South Africa to the Group of 20 summit to be held in Miami in 2026 under the US’s presidency marks a tense period in relations between the two countries and is, at the same time, an unprecedented move in the group’s history.

Trump based his decision on the situation that developed at the G-20 summit hosted by South Africa in Johannesburg, which just ended. The summit was effectively boycotted by the US, and the presidency was not transferred in the traditional manner. Since Washington refused to attend the high-level forum (and by some reports, even members of the US diplomatic corps were not present), Pretoria refused to hold the public procedure of transferring the ceremonial gavel to the US, stating that instead it would formalize the change in presidency in due course. This diplomatic episode was the official reason for the US démarche: Trump decided not to invite South Africa to the summit in the US and simultaneously announced that he was immediately ending subsidies to Pretoria…