US Secretary of State Marco Rubio influenced the position of US President Donald Trump on russia, who decided to cancel talks with russian dictator vladimir putin in Budapest and instead announced the imposition of sanctions.
This is reported by Bloomberg, citing sources.
Trump has radically changed his position on russia, canceling a planned meeting with russian dictator vladimir putin, as well as imposing the first direct sanctions against russia in his second term.
According to American and European officials, the sudden change was caused, among other things, by Secretary of State Marco Rubio's assessment that Moscow had not made any significant changes in its position. Rubio himself is a long-time supporter of a tough policy on russia and once called putin a "gangster".
Sources said Rubio canceled a planned in-person meeting with russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which was supposed to prepare for the talks in Budapest, after they spoke by phone and it became clear that the Kremlin was again trying to slow down the ceasefire talks and drag out the war.
The publication noted that his position contrasted with the more accommodating strategy towards russia advocated by longtime Trump friend and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. However, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly disputed that characterization of Rubio's role.
"President Trump always leads foreign policy, and his agenda is executed by national security officials like Secretary Rubio and Special Envoy Witkoff, who are the only team that supports the President's vision of 'America First,'" she said.
Meanwhile, some have alleged that Witkoff's talks with putin ahead of the previous summit in Alaska led to confusion and the impression that Moscow was ready to make concessions that it had no intention of making. A White House spokeswoman denied that.
However, the August summit was tense, according to sources, as putin insisted on negotiating over Ukrainian territory, which frustrated Trump and almost caused him to leave the room. And this time, Rubio led the preparatory work.
In recent days, russia has sent the United States a plan, according to sources, outlining its terms for peace with Ukraine, reiterating all its well-known positions, including demands that Ukraine give up most of its territory.
There has also been confusion on the russian side. According to a person familiar with the Kremlin's position, a phone call between putin and Trump last week ended with russian officials believing the US President had agreed to russia's demand that Kyiv give up the rest of Donbas in exchange for only minor territorial concessions from Moscow.
But a day later, after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump reiterated that he wanted a ceasefire along the current front lines, an idea that Moscow had rejected even before the Alaska summit, the source said. The source said Lavrov had stressed that disagreement in a phone call with Rubio on Monday. By then, preparations for the summit had fallen apart.
The publication said Rubio's greater involvement ahead of the talks was a relief to many European officials who had expressed concern that the US – under Witkoff's leadership – could move too close to russia's position by pressuring Ukraine to accept Moscow's demands.
According to During Trump's meeting with Zelenskyy last week, Witkoff again pressed the Ukrainian president to agree to putin's demands to hand over Donbas to russia, according to people familiar with the matter.
At the same time, Rubio left open the possibility of further engagement with Moscow, including future meetings. On Wednesday night, before traveling to Israel and Asia, Rubio told reporters at Joint Base Andrews near Washington: "We're always interested in engaging if there's an opportunity to make peace."
"I think the President has been saying for months that at some point he's going to have to do something if we don't make progress on a peace deal. Today he decided to do something," Rubio said.
Recall that The Wall Street Journal reported on October 20 that Witkoff would step down as head of the negotiating team with russia, and Rubio would take his place.
On October 21, it became known that the planned meeting between US Secretary of State Mark Rubio and russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which was supposed to take place this week and be a preparatory stage for the talks in Budapest, has been postponed indefinitely.
Trump explained why he canceled the meeting with putin, and also imposed sanctions against the russian federation. The russian dictator also expressed his version of the disruption of the meeting in Budapest.
In addition, the US imposed sanctions against leading russian oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil.
Today, October 24, CNN, citing sources, reported that the head of the russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Kirill Dmitriev, arrived in the US to hold "official" negotiations against the backdrop of US imposition of sanctions against the aggressor state of russia.
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