Trump ballroom official held quiet Kremlin talks

{"text":[[{"start":8.764,"text":"The US official overseeing Donald Trump’s contentious White House ballroom extension held talks with Kremlin officials in Russia this summer as part of a quiet diplomatic mission, according to people familiar with the matter."}],[{"start":20.44,"text":"Rodney Mims Cook Jr, chair of the US Commission of Fine Arts, was given a diplomatic passport and extensive briefings before attending Vladimir Putin’s flagship economic forum in St Petersburg in June, where he met Kremlin officials and was assigned a diplomatic security detail, the people said."}],[{"start":37.6,"text":"An enthusiast for Russian culture, Cook presented his trip as a “cultural visit” where he showed photographs of his “dacha” in Atlanta."}],[{"start":45.273,"text":"US secretary of state Marco Rubio said in June that he was “not aware” of the delegation to St Petersburg."}],[{"start":52.4,"text":"But the US hoped unlikely envoys such as Cook can help break the diplomatic deadlock over Russia’s war in Ukraine, two of the people said. One of the people Cook met was Anton Kobyakov, a senior aide to Putin, according to a person familiar with the matter."}],[{"start":67.08,"text":"Cook was the first US official to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a showcase international event known as “Putin’s Davos”, since 2018. The US boycotted the forum a year later in protest at the arrest of a prominent American businessman and had stayed away over the invasion of Ukraine."}],[{"start":86.2,"text":"Despite Russia’s efforts to show life was going on as normal, Ukraine’s escalating drone campaign put the war front and centre at the conference."}],[{"start":93.92,"text":"When he was going to breakfast with a friend at the Winter Palace on the opening day, Cook witnessed a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian refinery on the Neva as he was crossing Palace Square, sending huge plumes of black smoke billowing over the city. “Too close for comfort,” he told the FT."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":110.3,"text":"Cook declined to comment on his meetings with Russian officials, whether Trump had asked him to pursue the outreach or whether he would return there in the near future. “There are many requests. We’re working on that now,” he said."}],[{"start":120.96,"text":"A White House official said the US “continues to play a constructive role in speaking to both sides in working towards bringing the war to an end” and that Trump was “optimistic” about securing a peace deal."}],[{"start":134.158,"text":"A US official said Cook attended the St Petersburg forum as chair of the US Commission of Fine Arts to further bilateral cultural ties."}],[{"start":143.2,"text":"But the Russia trip carried heavy symbolism for the prospect of reviving diplomacy."}],[{"start":148.36,"text":"At a panel called “Russia-US: Dialogue of Cultures”, Cook displayed photographs of his own “dacha” in Atlanta, which he said was built in the “Russian wooden vernacular, which has touched my heart over the decades”."}],[{"start":161.16,"text":"He then gave a lengthy presentation on the historic Russian churches, public buildings and country homes he has helped renovate since he first visited the country in the 1990s."}],[{"start":170.36,"text":"“I know Russian culture, and I know most of the leadership of their cultural institutions,” he told the FT. The roundtable of senior Russian officials and cultural dignitaries, some of whom are under US sanctions, “included most of my old friends, which was really a great homecoming”, Cook added. “The personal connection between all of us was very clear.”"}],[{"start":191.24,"text":"Cook recounted a visit to the grave of Louisa Catherine Adams, the infant daughter of John Quincy Adams, the first US ambassador to Russia, where he laid flowers and read a prayer. Cook was accompanied by Vladimir Tolstoy, a former longtime cultural adviser to Putin and great-great-grandson of War and Peace author Leo Tolstoy. “We’ve been friends for decades. He’s a superstar,” Cook said."}],[{"start":213.88,"text":"During his presentation, Cook avoided mentioning the war in Ukraine until the end, when he said: “My children don’t feel this anymore. We must educate them to understand this. But we must be at peace in order to achieve these goals . . . Help us do this.”"}],[{"start":228.4,"text":"At a question-and-answer session with Putin the next day, Cook passed on a “good hello from your friend, President Trump”, adding: “We have a lot of ideas to talk about between our two capital cities in the next week.”"}],[{"start":240.44,"text":"Putin thanked Cook and said he “pushed the puck back” to Trump. Cook sourced a hockey puck from a friend and placed it on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office “much to President Trump’s amusement”, he said. “So the message was conveyed.”"}],[{"start":256.9,"text":"While in St Petersburg, Cook said he requested a private performance of Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No 7, written during Nazi Germany’s siege of Leningrad during the second world war, by a 150-piece orchestra."}],[{"start":272.92,"text":"Cook told Putin culture and music had helped St Petersburg survive the war and said his native city would also have been spared destruction when the Union captured it during the US civil war."}],[{"start":284.2,"text":"“If only Atlanta had had Shostakovich, maybe, quite possibly, my beautiful city would be as intact as this beautiful place is,” Cook told Putin to a round of applause."}],[{"start":295.12,"text":"“It is what essentially broke the German lines surrounding the city [during the siege of Leningrad] and it was the beginning of the end for the Nazis. The Russians used their music as a weapon and it worked,” Cook told the FT."}],[{"start":308.52,"text":"“That’s one of the things I started to discuss while I was there . . . Let’s use music as a reason for a ceasefire and finish this war and really firm up a treaty.”"}],[{"start":322.42,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787044816_2629.mp3"}