Coons: To Blame Obama for Crimea Misses the Historical Context

WALLACE: President Trump has refused to rule out accepting the annexation of Crimea by Russia, and here’s what he had to say about Putin’s actions in that part of the world.

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TRUMP: This was an Obama disaster, and I think if I were president then he would not have taken over Crimea.

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WALLACE: The fact is, Senator, that President Trump has been tougher than President Obama when it comes to dealing with Russia, especially on the sanctions issue and — the Crimea issues and others. He’s issued more sanctions. He’s expelled more diplomats and he also has sent lethal aid to Ukraine, which President Obama refused to do.

COONS: Chris, I supported the provision of lethal aid to Ukraine, I visited Ukraine, and they are very nervous about what might happen between President Trump and President Putin. I will remind you that one of the strong steps that President Obama did take was getting our allies to expel Russia from the G8 to reduce it to the G7.

And in the recent G7 meeting, President Trump said perhaps Russia should rejoin. I would support our reducing sanctions on Russia, allowing them to rejoin G8 if they took the steps that they must take to withdraw their forces from eastern Ukraine, to undo the illegal annexation of Crimea, but to simply waive that, to say it is somehow all Obama’s fault and let’s move forward would be to weaken our vital allies in Europe who have joined us in sustaining tough sanctions against Russia.

I commend President Trump for the steps he has taken, but to simply waive this off as Obama’s fault misses the vital historical context here. President Putin is the first Russian leader since Stalin to expand their territory. We can’t allow this to go unchallenged.