Vladimir Putin’s chief delegate at peace talks with Ukraine is a historian who once claimed that Russians have an extra chromosome due to their superiority.

Having refused to attend the negotiations himself or even to send any senior officials, Putin has sent a low-level delegation to peace talks in Istanbul led by Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s former culture minister.

Mr Medinsky’s presence at the head of a Russian team lacking any Kremlin heavyweights earned derision from Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, who called the delegation “decorative” and argued that it was evidence of Putin’s insincerity.

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