Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote an op-ed for Fox News stressing that Putin wants to bring back the Soviet Union —and we must stop him at all costs. Excerpts below:
Days ago, Vladimir Putin did what we all have known he was going to do for months: He invaded Ukraine.
This invasion was by no means inevitable. We in the Trump administration knew that it was Putin’s aim to establish Russian dominance and influence over all the old Soviet bloc countries, including in Ukraine. We were able to keep an invasion like this one from occurring by establishing a model of deterrence not just with respect to Russia, but with anyone who threatened to harm or undermine our interests.
We kept the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from being completed, we withheld talks on a new START treaty, and we worked with our partners in NATO to increase defense spending and present a greater potential response to any act of Russian aggression.
We knew what Putin wanted to accomplish if given the chance, and we took the steps necessary to ensure he didn’t get that chance. Make no mistake, Putin is about the business of trying to bring back the Soviet Union. We must not allow that to happen.
It is not Vladimir Putin who has changed; it’s American leadership that’s changed.
The Biden administration has been threatening to execute what Vice President Kamala Harris called “some of the greatest sanctions, if not the strongest, that we’ve ever issued.” But Putin has shown from day one that he is largely unconcerned with Western sanctions. As Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy said in response, “We don’t need your sanctions … after we will have no borders and after we will have no economy or part of our country will be occupied. Why would we need those sanctions then?”
President Biden has been weak toward Putin, unstable and unclear – he doesn’t understand what is at stake in the fight against Russia and doesn’t know that it takes strength to defend America and keep us out of war.
Read the full op-ed over at Fox News:
Putin wants to bring back the Soviet Union. We must not allow that to happen.https://t.co/3sqDJf6vuf
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) February 24, 2022
Thank you for visiting