Rubio’s Skepticism of Russian Spin Spurred US Shift on Putin

For months, President Donald Trump resisted calls to slap new sanctions on Russia, believing he could end the war in a deal with Vladimir Putin — including with a quick peace summit in the coming weeks in Budapest.

In a dramatic reversal this week, Trump canceled those plans and then went a step further, imposing the first direct sanctions on Moscow of his second term. “It was time,” Trump said.

But the sudden shift also grew from an assessment by Secretary of State Marco Rubio — a long-time Russia hawk who once called Putin a “gangster” — that Moscow had ...