PUTIN’S RESET

How Putin’s Aggression Has
Been Boosted by Obama’s
Weakness
By Fred Fleitz
“In short, we have every reason to assume that the infamous policy of containment,
led in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, continues today. They are constantly
trying to sweep us into a corner because we have an independent position, because
we maintain it and because we call things like they are and do not engage in
hypocrisy. But there is a limit to everything. And with Ukraine, our western
partners have crossed the line, playing the bear and acting irresponsibly and
unprofessionally.”
-Russian President Vladimir Putin in a speech to
a joint session of the Russian Parliament, March
18, 2014
Over the last few years, there have been several extraordinary instances of
Russian disrespect and disregard for the United States and the U.S. president.
In March 2016, President Barack Obama hosted a summit of world leaders in
Washington, DC to discuss one of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy priorities: nuclear
security and keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. Ordinarily, world
leaders always attend such high-level events out of respect for the United States,
especially when focused on a U.S. president’s signature issue. However, Russia
skipped the summit. A Russian official dismissed the meeting by saying, “We don’t
really know what the point of this summit is.” This was a major snub of President
Obama by President Putin.
In early September 2016, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov negotiated a Syrian peace agreement that was
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