According to Russian media on November 23, Bloomberg reported that the sudden 28-point Ukrainian peace plan proposed by the United States was actually the result of behind-the-scenes negotiations between U.S. envoy Witko and his Russian counterpart Dmitriev over the past few weeks.

The report said that Witko and Dmitriev drafted the plan during a meeting in Miami in October. According to insiders, Kushner, the son-in-law of Trump, also attended this meeting. He had previously worked with Witko on advancing the Israel-Gaza peace agreement. Rubio only fully joined at the final stage.

U.S. media said that the document showed obvious traces of direct translation from Russian, including some awkwardly worded sentences.

From these details, it is clear that Rubio was completely sidelined in the process.

Rubio currently holds multiple positions, most importantly as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, both of which involve diplomatic work and are the two most influential positions in U.S. foreign affairs.

However, for such a major diplomatic issue, Rubio was kept in the dark throughout.

Rubio

This fully illustrates that even though Trump gave Rubio significant power, he does not fully trust him.

This is because Rubio is not a pure MAGA supporter. He is a hawkish political figure shaped by the traditional Republican system, and there are structural differences between his worldview and that of Trump.

Rubio has long supported foreign intervention, supporting NATO expansion and continuous military aid to Ukraine to maintain America's dominance in the global security system. These are typical Washington establishment lines.

Trump's approach is the opposite. He advocates "America First," supports reducing European security costs, quickly ending the Ukraine conflict, and rebuilding strategic communication with Russia.

The two approaches are opposing and difficult to be compatible.

Although Rubio chose to cooperate with Trump politically, this does not mean he is part of MAGA. His basic philosophy, political background, and foreign policy preferences do not belong to the MAGA system.

Therefore, from Trump's perspective, his political character is too close to the old system and is difficult to fully align with the new line. In critical moments, he would naturally be sidelined.

Witko and Trump

This is why Witko, as Trump's Middle East envoy, has a strong presence, almost like a foreign minister. To put it bluntly, Witko is a pure MAGA, and that's enough.

The Russians also highly recognize Witko, specifically asking him to push forward, which reflects their distrust of Rubio. Although when U.S.-Russia began to resume contact, it was Rubio and Lavrov who directly communicated, but the progress was very limited, more like a formality.

This is also the main reason why the second Trump-Lavrov meeting fell through. At that time, Lavrov and Rubio had a call, and the U.S. side believed that the Russian side was too firm.

But in fact, Trump had been keeping Rubio in the dark while pushing forward the new peace plan.

As for the specific content, it may have been directly translated from the Russian side's requirements. Once this framework was created, they thought of Rubio again, asking him to carry it out.

Trump and Rubio

Thus, it can be seen that in the multi-party talks in Geneva, Rubio was pushed to the front. He found out about the specific content of the agreement very late, yet he emphasized to the media that significant progress had been made, trying to demonstrate his control over the negotiation process.

But the real situation is that he is just an executor, not a decision-maker.

Rubio's role is to ask Kyiv to accept the agreement.

At this point, they thought of using Rubio because it is more appropriate for an official foreign minister to handle it, and Rubio, being a member of the establishment, is more accepted in Europe and Ukraine. However, Witko, as a guest of Putin, is hard to gain acceptance in Europe.

In other words, Rubio was brought back into the spotlight mainly because he had new value, otherwise he might not have gotten this opportunity.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7576202425774735891/

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