Exclusive: McCain Tells Obama How to Punish Putin

[DonViejo]

In an exclusive interview, Senator John McCain identifies several ways the U.S. could respond to Vladimir Putin’s decision to move Russian troops into Ukraine.

President Obama promised Friday there would be “costs” if Russia moved troops into Ukraine, but he didn’t specify what those costs might be. Sen. John McCain has several suggestions for Obama, including the sanctioning of high-level Russian officials; restarting missile defense plans in Eastern Europe; and bringing Georgia, a former Soviet republic, into NATO. McCain plans to push from the Congressional side, he told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview Saturday evening.

McCain wants the administration to expand its threat to pull out of the G8 Summit in Sochi scheduled for June. That limited move is unlikely to convince Putin to give up his control of Crimea, where Russia has its 15,000-man strong Black Sea Fleet and where unmarked but Russian-controlled paramilitary troops control the two main airports.

“I think Obama’s threat is laughable,” McCain said. “But I think we ought to do it and every other international gathering of leaders, because the one thing that Putin enjoys is strutting on the international stage.”

McCain added that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- who inaugurated the Obama administration’s “reset” of relations with Russia in 2009 -- had totally misjudged Russia.

“Of course she got it wrong,” said McCain. “She believed that somehow there would be a reset with a guy who was a KGB colonel who always had ambitions to restore the Russian empire. That’s what this is all about.”

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/01/exclusive-mccain-tells-obama-how-to-punish-putin.html

[spanone]

1. i've been waiting for this gasbag to get his war on

[giftedgirl77]

2. Does McCain not realize that he was never elected President

& we don't give a shit what his POV is on these issues? Especially since 100% of the time it involves armed conflict.

[RKP5637]

3. We're lucky to have Obama in office rather than a loose cannon rolling around! n/t

[jsr]

4. Go, Johnny, go

[Historic NY]

5. Well at least Obama isn't inviting him for BBQ

sleepover down at the pig farm.

[bemildred]

6. The picker of Palin says somebody else got it wrong? nt

[hobbit709]

7. What? "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran?"

[edhopper]

8. Has McCain been right

about a single foreign policy in his entire career?