Mitt Romney: Still Wrong on Russia
In 2012, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney possessed no real foreign-policy experience. But that didn’t stop him from attacking President Barack Obama as weak on national security. With Osama bin Laden dead and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan poised to wind down, Romney looked elsewhere for a place where Obama was failing: Russia.
It all started in March 2012, when a hot mic caught Obama telling then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more “space” to negotiate on missile defense after the November presidential election in the United States. After news broke of this hush-hush assurance, Romney pounced, branding Russia “without question our number one geopolitical foe” in an interview and accusing Moscow of “fight[ing] every cause for the world’s worst actors.” When pressed, he claimed that Russia posed a greater threat than Iran, China, or North Korea. In an essay published on Foreign Policy‘s website the next day, Romney went so far as to say the president was “ingratiat[ing] himself with the Kremlin.” Few in the national security community took his accusations seriously. “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back,” Obama joked during a debate several months later.
As he gears up for yet another presidential run, it’s clear to Romney that his 2012 position has been vindicated. Last March, he authored an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which he argued that Obama has been a “failure” on Russia. That has become a rallying cry echoed by top foreign-policy voices in the GOP, including Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Sen. John McCain. Romney now says that Obama demonstrated “naiveté with regards to Russia” and that the president’s “faulty judgment” contributed to President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to use military force in Crimea.
Romney, though, wasn’t right then, and he isn’t right now. The Crimea invasion, as Obama has said, was the act of a cowed “regional power” — and a declining one at that. The days when Moscow could challenge the United States on a global scale are long gone. Russia is boxed in by sanctions and wracked by a collapsing economy, thanks in part to plummeting oil prices. Romney’s attempt to claim victory on all things Russia is misplaced, and it will certainly undermine his foreign-policy credibility if he chooses to run once again. (Read more about Romney being wrong on Russia HERE)
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