An American lawyer helped open a backchannel between Biden’s White House and Putin. A Financial Times report details the exchanges, a later unofficial peace bid, and how it fell apart.

In 2022 and early 2023, Richard Conn, an American lawyer with expertise in Russia, initiated back-channel talks between U.S. officials and the Kremlin. His concerns stemmed from the potential use of nuclear weapons by Putin, which could have catastrophic global consequences. Conn worked through Russian and American intermediaries to relay a conciliatory message from the Biden administration to Putin.

One of the intermediaries in these talks was Matthias Warnig, a former Stasi officer who had extensive ties to Vladimir Putin. Warnig was one of the few individuals with direct access to the Russian leader. On October 4, 2022, Conn and an American investor named Bob Foresman met with Warnig in Zurich. They received a message from the White House, which stated that the U.S. was not seeking regime change in Russia, nor did it pose an existential threat.

In response, Warnig relayed Putin's message to Conn and Foresman, who quoted him as saying he was open to negotiations and seeking a long-term peaceful resolution to the conflict.

This success encouraged Conn and Foresman to take on a more active role in mediating between Russia and Ukraine. They enlisted the help of Michael Calvey to connect with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky through Ukrainian producer Alexander Rodnyansky. The proposed peace terms included Russia withdrawing its troops from most of the regions it had annexed, with the border following Crimea and parts of Donbas occupied before 2022.

In return, Ukraine would recognize Russian control over Crimea and grant Russia free passage along the "land bridge" to the peninsula.