Drew Hinshaw

Back in October, at a beautiful waterfront home in Florida, three men quietly came together to try and end a war.

These men were trying to draft a plan to end the long and deadly conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

A plan that would become the basis of lengthy peace talks that took place this week.

But our colleague Drew Hinshaw says when these businessmen met in Miami, peace wasn't the only thing they were negotiating.

That's according to people familiar with the talks.

That's our colleague Joe Parkinson, who reports with Drew.

Over the past few months, Joe and Drew, along with a team of Wall Street Journal reporters, have been investigating the Trump administration's approach to negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

And what they found was a dramatic shift in U.S.

diplomatic strategy, particularly when it comes to relations with the Kremlin.

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Jessica Mendoza.

It's Friday, December 5th.

Coming up on the show, inside the U.S.

's new Russia strategy, peace through business.

Drew, can you talk to me about how this new diplomatic strategy came to be?

Witkoff, Trump's billionaire friend and golfing partner, wasn't the most obvious choice.

The president had originally appointed a former lieutenant general to lead the talks with Russia, but the Russians didn't want to work with him.

Following that meeting, Witkoff, whose official title is Special Envoy to the Middle East, became increasingly involved in negotiations with Russia.

Witkoff's counterpart, Kirill Dmitriev, is a Russian investment banker with degrees from Harvard and Stanford.

Like Witkoff, Dmitriev isn't part of the Foreign Service establishment, but the two spoke the same language, business.