Posted on 07/27/2014 1:16:25 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Neither President Obama nor any other world leader can sway the mind of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“Putin is going to do what Putin is going to do,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Obama’s foreign policy strategy has been attacked in recent weeks, with some accusing him of doing too little to stymie Russian intervention in Ukraine, where ongoing violence this month included the deaths of hundreds aboard a passenger jetliner. The U.S. has said Russia is at least indirectly responsible for that attack.
“As far as Putin is concerned, he’s a KGB guy who happens to be the president of Russia and he’s going to do what he’s going to do, no matter who else is in charge any place else in the word,” Pelosi said. “I would not judge his actions or his motivations by anything other than he is rooted in a KGB [mindset], insecure about Russia’s diminished role in the world.” The U.S. has launched a set of sanctions against Russia and tried to rally countries around the world to follow suit, but Moscow has not backed off its support of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's east.
Speaking on the same CNN show, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said those sanctions “clearly are not working” and accused Obama of being “AWOL.”
Ongoing violence in Gaza and the rise of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which has gained ground amid a power vacuum in those countries, only makes clear the costs of a weakened U.S., he added.
“Passive responses to naked aggression all over the world is our foreign policy,” Graham said. “Without American leadership, the world has become a very dangerous place and our allies like Israel and Ukraine suffer.”
Putin appointed Ramzan Kadyrov, the jihadist son of the Chechen mufti, as Sultan for life of Chechnya and paid him billions as tribute to rebuild Chechnya. Kadyrov is instituting sharia law on Russian soil with Putin's blessing, and has built the largest mosque in Europe there.
Putin has never attacked any muslim nation. He is at war with his Christian neighbors and he sends Chechen muslims to kill Orthodox Christians in Georgia and Ukraine.
“now the West must surrender”
So if we don’t “control” Russia and determine what happens in former Soviet territory, we’re surrendering? That’s insane.
If NATO is too weak to defend the world from Russia, then they must submit to your goal, and Russia’s expansionism.
That is why Finland and Sweden are considering joining NATO, because they too fear Russia’s conquest of empire.
You simultaneously say Russia is weak and on the verge of collapse, and yet it’s a threat to conquer the entire world, when they have done nothing beyond the borders of the old USSR. Given the fact that Russia has been invaded multiple times throughout their history, and now people like you want to “control” them, they have every reason to be worried about NATO expanding into their former territory.
I’m not a fan of Putin. He’s a thug, but most world leaders are. I have no “goal”, other than keeping the hell out of it. If the Ukrainians value their independence they are capable of defending it themselves.
You do have a side as Russia moves to empire, you support it.
You are calling for the free world to stay out of them reconquering "Soviet Territory, which of course includes many NATO countries.
"So if we don’t “control” Russia and determine what happens in former Soviet territory, we’re surrendering? That’s insane."
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