RI-SEN: Chafee praises Putin's 'brilliant' critique of U.S. power
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — If Lincoln Chafee were to run in a Democratic primary against U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, he would break with the party establishment on one of the nation’s most pressing foreign policy issues: Russia.
Chafee, the former Republican senator who switched to the Democratic Party when he became Rhode Island’s governor, said in an interview Thursday with The Providence Journal that the “terrible” state of U.S.-Russia relations stemmed from the U.S. not paying heed to a “brilliant” 2007 speech by Vladimir Putin, in which the Russian president railed against American imperialism and said the days of “unipolar” America bullying the world were over.
“We need an enemy, and the military-industrial complex decided it’s going to be Russia,” Chafee said.
Chafee is accustomed to being a man apart: He was the only Republican in the Senate to vote against the authorization to go to war with Iraq during the Bush administration in 2002. Now that he’s a Democrat, his stance on Russia stands out from a party that is increasingly hawkish toward Russia.
http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20180426/chafee-praises-putins-brilliant-critique-of-us-power