Putin Trolls U.S. By Giving Trump Envoy Medal Meant For CIA Official

The award, the Order of Lenin, was meant to be handed off to Juliane Gallina, whose 21-year-old son, Michael Gloss, was killed in 2024, fighting for Russia against Ukraine.
Putin Trolls U.S. By Giving Trump Envoy Medal Meant For CIA Official
Credit: Wikimedia
By Ed Scarce — August 10, 2025

After the U.S. initiated a meeting with Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin must have thought it would be hilarious to give the Order of Lenin, an award established in the Soviet era for "meritorious services to the Soviet state and society" to a leading Trump administraton official. Steve Witkoff accepted it happily, seemingly oblivious to the insult that was obvious to everyone else.

Compounding Witkoff's diplomatic faux pas (before Trump, Steve Witkoff had zero diplomatic experience, a billionaire real estate developer instead), "Trump's special envoy, Witkoff, is said to have completely misunderstood some of the Russians' statements and misinterpreted them as a concession from Putin." So now, when Putin and Trump meet in Alaska next weekend, they won't even be talking about the same things.

Source: CBS News

Washington — Russian President Vladimir Putin gave President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff an award to pass along to a senior CIA official whose son was killed in Ukraine while fighting alongside Russian forces, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The award, the Order of Lenin, was meant to be handed off to Juliane Gallina, whose 21-year-old son, Michael Gloss, was killed in 2024.

Gallina is currently serving at the CIA as deputy director for digital innovation. It could not be immediately determined what was done with the award.

Multiple sources told CBS News that Putin gave Witkoff the award during his trip to Russia this week, which a Russian official said the U.S. initiated, to discuss ending the Ukraine war.

The gesture by Putin, known for mind games and attempts to expose adversaries' points of weakness, was likely meant to raise unhelpful questions and highlight that a CIA official's son fought for Russia in the war.

But it gets worse. Much worse. From the German Bild:

According to BILD, even before the peace summit on August 15, the Kremlin did not deviate from its maximum demand of completely controlling the five Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, and Crimea before the guns fall silent. The Russian side only suggested "sectoral ceasefires" – such as a mutual renunciation of attacks against energy facilities or major cities behind the front lines.

Under no circumstances, however, does Putin want a halt to Russia's major offensives along the front – even though the US has proposed, in return, largely lifting sanctions against Russia and concluding new economic agreements. Trump even floated a "territory swap," which would allow Russia to retain parts of the occupied Donbas in exchange for relinquishing further territory ( which the Ukrainian president categorically rejected ).

Even worse: Trump's special envoy, Witkoff, is said to have completely misunderstood some of the Russians' statements and misinterpreted them as a concession from Putin. He misinterpreted Russia's demand for a "peaceful withdrawal" of Ukrainians from Kherson and Zaporizhia as an offer of a "peaceful withdrawal" by the Russians from these regions.

"Witkoff doesn't know what he's talking about," a Ukrainian government official told BILD. An assessment that, according to BILD information, is also shared by German government officials.

So completely inept, the Ukrainians and the Germans threw up their hands in disgust at the sheer incompetence of it all.

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