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An American lawyer, Richard Conn, helped relay a Biden administration message to Vladimir Putin through intermediaries in 2022, according to a Financial Times report. Conn and associates later tried to advance an unofficial peace proposal, but the channel was shut down by early 2023; the report says subsequent U.S. peace efforts used other people and have not succeeded.
A Financial Times report has detailed how American lawyer Richard Conn helped carry a Biden administration message to Vladimir Putin through private intermediaries in 2022, then joined an unofficial effort to propose terms for ending the war in Ukraine. The channel was effectively ended by early 2023, the report says, and its peace bid did not produce an agreement.
Conn, a corporate lawyer and investor who began working in Russia in 1992, became concerned in March 2022 that Putin might resort to tactical nuclear weapons after Russian forces failed to capture Kyiv, according to the FT’s account. Conn was contacted by an unnamed Russian businessman who feared escalation. Conn then approached Eric Green, who oversaw Russia policy at the U.S. National Security Council, with the idea of reaching Putin outside normal diplomatic channels. Green agreed, but it took months to establish contact.
Conn enlisted American investor Bob Foresman, who had ties to Russian business, and used Foresman’s connection to Matthias Warnig, a longtime Putin associate who had led the Nord Stream pipeline projects. In October 2022, Conn passed Warnig a message from the White House. As quoted by the FT, it said: “The US is not pursuing regime change. We’re not trying to destroy Russia. There is no existential threat. We’re trying to support international order and the UN. We want peace.”
Warnig later relayed a response attributed to Putin, saying he was open to negotiations but intended to continue fighting if he saw no alternative. The FT noted that it was not fully clear whether the words recorded in Warnig’s notebook were Putin’s exact wording or Warnig’s account of his position. Conn and Foresman later expanded their role, working with Warnig and Ukrainian producer Alexander Rodnyansky to deliver unofficial proposals to both sides. The reported terms included Russian withdrawal from most territory annexed in 2022, while recognizing Russian control of Crimea and allowing passage along a route described in the source account. The supplied account does not give the full terms or explain how each side formally responded.
The Limits of Private Diplomacy
The episode offers a rare account of an attempt to communicate with Putin outside the formal diplomatic structure during a period of concern about nuclear escalation. The channel’s reported purpose was initially narrow: deliver Washington’s position directly and test whether Putin was open to discussion. It later broadened into an effort to shape possible terms for a settlement, despite Conn and his associates not holding official negotiating roles.
The backchannel also overlapped with official U.S.-Russian contacts. The FT reported that national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Russian official Yuri Ushakov were communicating about the nuclear issue around the same time. That overlap matters because Conn’s channel was not the only route for messages, and the report does not establish that the private exchanges caused Putin’s public remarks or changed battlefield decisions. The later peace effort illustrates how unofficial proposals can create a route for contact, but not the authority or leverage needed to secure an agreement.
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How the Channel Took Shape
Conn’s approach grew out of his longstanding business connections in Russia and his concern about the war’s potential escalation. He had discussed the possibility of a backchannel with Green as early as 2021, shortly after Green took up his White House role, the FT reported. The Russian businessman’s warning in March 2022 gave Conn a reason to revive the idea, but the first reported message to Putin was not delivered until that September.
After an October meeting in Zurich, Conn passed the administration’s message to Warnig in Germany. Warnig then met Conn and Foresman at Frankfurt Airport on October 26 and conveyed the response attributed to Putin. The following day, Putin said at the Valdai Discussion Club that using nuclear weapons would make “no political or military sense” for Russia. Conn and Foresman interpreted the public remarks as a sign that their effort had helped reduce the nuclear danger. The FT’s account, however, also points to official talks taking place at the time, so the sequence does not establish a cause-and-effect link.
“Using nuclear weapons made “no political or military sense” for Russia.”
— Vladimir Putin, speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club on October 27, 2022
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What the Report Leaves Open
The FT account does not establish whether the Biden administration’s message changed Putin’s calculations or whether the backchannel affected the course of the war. The response attributed to Putin was relayed by Warnig, and the report itself leaves open whether the recorded wording was a verbatim quotation. It is also unclear from the available account how Ukraine and Russia formally assessed the proposed settlement terms, or which provisions were acceptable to either side.
The precise process by which the channel ended is described only in broad terms: official negotiators Yuri Ushakov and Eric Green had effectively brought Conn’s route to a close by early 2023. The source material does not detail what was said in those exchanges, whether the two governments explicitly instructed Conn to stop, or why the unofficial peace initiative fell apart. It also does not identify a current continuation of Conn’s channel.
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Official Talks Remain Separate
The report describes Conn’s effort as a past episode rather than an active negotiation. By early 2023, the private channel had effectively ended, and later U.S. attempts to negotiate an end to the war involved other people, according to the account. Those attempts have not succeeded. The supplied material does not announce a new meeting or a forthcoming step involving Conn, Warnig, or the original participants.
Any assessment of the episode’s effect will depend on further documentation or accounts from people involved, particularly about how the proposals were received and why the effort ended. For now, the reported exchanges show that informal contacts occurred, but they do not amount to a peace agreement or establish that the channel changed policy.
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Key Questions
Who is Richard Conn?
Richard Conn is an American corporate lawyer and investor who began working in Russia in 1992. The Financial Times reported that he used longstanding contacts in American and Russian business circles to help deliver a White House message to Putin.
What did the Biden administration’s message say?
The message said the United States was not seeking regime change or Russia’s destruction, and that Washington wanted peace. Conn passed it to Matthias Warnig, who had access to Putin, according to the report.
Did the backchannel produce a peace deal?
No agreement is reported. Conn and associates later delivered unofficial proposals to Russia and Ukraine, but the effort fell apart, and the account does not provide a complete record of each side’s response.
Why did the channel end?
The report says official negotiators Yuri Ushakov and Eric Green had effectively brought the channel to an end by early 2023. The available source material does not explain the detailed reasons or describe a formal closure order.
Did Conn’s effort reduce the risk of nuclear escalation?
Conn and Foresman believed Putin’s later public remarks suggested the nuclear danger had eased. The report does not establish that their private exchanges caused those remarks or changed Russia’s decisions; official U.S.-Russian contacts were also taking place.
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