The historic peace summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin took place this weekend in Alaska, with the two nations coming somewhat closer to achieving a lasting peace in Ukraine.
Those who had hoped this meeting would result in an immediate end to the conflict were left disappointed; however, top U.S. diplomat and negotiator Steve Witkoff said that Putin had agreed Ukraine would receive a NATO-esque protection guarantee, which would protect Ukraine from further Russian aggression after the war. That’s a key component of any peace agreement — Ukraine can’t simply agree to lose some territory now if it remains the case that Russia will simply resume its attack later.
On the Ukrainian front, it is unfortunately the case that President Volodymyr Zelensky will likely have to agree to territorial concessions in order to bring this conflict to an end. There’s a dawning realization among even the most staunchly pro-Ukraine commentators that the war simply will not end unless Ukraine agrees to let Russia keep the conquered territories. The alternative is a drawn-out conflict that kills thousands more Ukrainians and results in the entire country coming under Russian control. The skillful diplomacy of Trump, of Witkoff, and of Secretary of State Marco Rubio is designed to avoid that outcome.
Indeed, Rubio has done a terrific job this weekend of schooling the reflexively hawkish voices in the mainstream media who think any public display of respect toward Putin is somehow emboldening him and the Russian takeover of Ukraine.
Media pundits complained endlessly about Putin receiving the red-carpet treatment, riding in a fancy car with Trump, and being treated with decency as befits his station as an important world leader. In fact, popular liberal X personality Brian Krassenstein basically called on the U.S. government to assassinate Putin as soon as he set foot in Alaska, which is quite obviously an insane idea. By comparison, the mainstream media was a bit more restrained, but they were still quite furious that Trump was being nice to Putin.
Look, if being mean to Putin was going to work, then Joe Biden would have already succeeded at ending the war: He didn’t, because diplomacy is a bit more complicated and subtle than just screaming “Putin bad” at the top of your lungs over and over again.
Rubio made this point expertly during his conversation with ABC’s Martha Raddatz:
“Critics of President Trump are always going to find something to criticize, I don’t even pay attention to it anymore, but I will tell you this: Putin is already on the world stage,” the secretary of State said.
“The guy’s conducting a full-scale war in Ukraine, he’s already on the world stage. He has the world’s largest tactical nuclear arsenal, and the second largest strategic nuclear arsenal in the world. He’s already on the world stage. When I hear people say it elevates him, well all we do is talk about Putin all the time. All the media has done is talk about Putin all the time for the last four, five years. That doesn’t mean he’s right about the war, that doesn’t mean he’s justified about the war, put all that aside. It means you’re not gonna have a peace agreement, you’re not gonna end a war between Russia and Ukraine without dealing with Putin. That’s just common sense.”
Rubio has it exactly right: We can’t end this war by refusing to give Putin attention, or the spotlight, or whatever it was that Raddatz was complaining about there. Frankly, the argument she’s making there sounds like she’s eventually calling for deplatforming Putin, like she’s saying he should be kicked off Twitter or something.
We shouldn’t be surprised to hear a mainstream media personality returning to this very familiar well, of course. Liberal and progressive media personalities love the idea of deplatforming people, because they have an almost religious faith in censorship and silencing. These are the preferred tactics of the mainstream media folks, who imagine that if they can’t hear or see people and opinions they don’t like, it must mean those sinister forces have been defeated. You would think they might have learned by now that this tactic usually backfires.
And in any case, Putin is not an account that can be suspended, or an idea that can be banned, or a phenomenon that can be ignored: He’s a political figure who must be engaged.
And lest anyone think the meeting was nothing but pleasantries, President Trump gave Putin a letter from first lady Melania Trump asking him to end the war for the sake of the children who are suffering because of it.
“Mr. Putin,” she wrote, “you can singlehandedly restore their melodic laughter.”
Let us all hope and pray that this meeting is followed by further diplomacy that ends this horrific conflict.
Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.
