Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) blasted successive American administrators for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, arguing that the policies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden were all to blame for Putin’s “impunity.”
"Putin’s Ukraine invasion is the first time in 80 years that a great power has moved to conquer a sovereign nation. It is without justification, without provocation and without honor," Romney said in a statement.
“Putin’s impunity predictably follows our tepid response to his previous horrors in Georgia and Crimea, our native efforts at a one-sided ‘reset,’ and the shortsightedness of ‘America First.’ The '80s called and we didn’t answer.”
Romney blamed America’s foreign policy over the last three administrators, castigating the trend of turning a blind eye to Russia’s behavior against neighboring states.
"The peril of again looking away from Putin’s tyranny falls not just on the people of the nations he has violated, it falls on America as well. History shows that a tyrant’s appetite for conquest is never satiated.”
The senator called for tough sanctions to be applied against Russia and its leadership and for the country to be shunned by the international community.
"America and our allies must answer the call to protect freedom by subjecting Putin and Russia to the harshest economic penalties, by expelling them from global institutions, and by committing ourselves to the expansion and modernization of our national defense," Romney said.
Presidential candidate Romney was famously mocked by President Obama during the 2012 election for stating that Russia was America’s "number one geopolitical foe.”
Attacking Obama for telling Russia’s then-President Dmitry Medvedev he'd have more "flexibility" when it came to Russia after the election was over, Romney told CNN in March 2012: "This is to Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe.”
"They fight every cause for the world’s worst actors. The idea that [Obama] has some more flexibility in mind for Russia is very, very troubling, indeed,” Romney said.