John Bolton: Putin Is Trying To Reassert Russian Predominance in the Space of the Former Soviet Union

RUSH EXCERPT:
BOLTON: "Let’s separate the hype. Military spending under Obama dropped dramatically. Exclude the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is huge. So the trump budget, while it’s sizeable increase doesn’t come close to addressing over the long term the gap spha Obama created. Crews missiles fly very low over the surface. Pop up at the target. Not ballistic missiles which follow ballistic missile trajectory. Something they have been working on for a long time. So are we. How operational they are, I don’t know. Is it a week before the Russian election? Sure, does Vladimir Putin have the slightest doubt who is going to win that? He knows how to fix elections when he wants to. This is a further effort to see whether the trump Administration will push back I think threw needs to be a streebleg response to this to help give confidence to our friends in Europe and around the world that we’re not going to but the up with this kind of Russian effort. I don’t think it’s a new Cold War but I do think it’s Vladimir Putin trying to reassert Russian predominance in eastern Europe, eastern and central Europe in the space of the former Soviet Union."