Rubio did not answer whether Putin is a war criminal. In 2017, he himself asked the then-Secretary of State candidate

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio refused to directly call Putin a war criminal. He was asked the same question he asked the then-nominee for Secretary of State in 2017.

This is reported by the Daily Beast.

Rubio appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on May 21. Democrat Bill Keating asked him if he considered the Kremlin leader a war criminal.

"Well, I think you can look at some of the incidents that happened there and completely characterize them as war crimes, but our goal is to end the war," Marco Rubio said.

“So he’s a war criminal?” Keating asked.

“We cannot end the war without talking to Mr. Putin,” the Secretary of State cut off.

Bill Keating insisted that the question was "quite simple" and asked it again.

“I’m trying to answer you by explaining that we want to end the war,” Rubio said irritably.

He noted that this is a difficult question and acknowledged that war crimes were committed. But the politician is convinced that the time will come to hold those responsible accountable.

Eight years ago, when Marco Rubio was a senator, he asked the same question of Rex Tillerson — then President Donald Trumpʼs nominee for secretary of state — during his confirmation hearings.

When he evaded an answer, Rubio listed a list of war crimes that the Russian army was accused of committing in Syria.

"It shouldnʼt be difficult to say that Putinʼs army committed war crimes in Aleppo, because itʼs never acceptable, youʼd agree, when the military purposefully attacks civilians, and thatʼs exactly what happened there," Rubio said at the time.

At a 2017 hearing, he suggested that the refusal to directly label Putin a war criminal creates the impression that the United States is only concerned about democracy and freedom when they are not being violated by someone they want. “That is unacceptable,” he stressed.

• Rubio previously told CBS News that the US government had asked US lawmakers for "some time" before imposing sanctions on Russia. Administration officials wanted to see if progress could be made in negotiations with Russia.

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