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February 5th, 2014
09:43 PM ET
Has the U.S. empowered Putin?
Crossfire host S.E. Cupp asks Larry Korb if the U.S. has become too trusting of the Russian government. Guest host Sally Kohn and Michael Reagan weigh in.
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Posted by CNN's Christina Manduley Filed under: Debates • Larry Korb • Michael Reagan • Russia • S.E. Cupp • Sally Kohn • Sochi |
Meet the Hosts
Author, documentary filmmaker, historian, Speaker of the House (1995-1999), and 2012 Republican presidential candidate
Fmr. Obama Deputy Campaign Mgr. and W.H. Sr. Adviser, founder of Precision Strategies, fmr. Sr. Adviser to Maj. Leader Reid and Sen. Kennedy
Conservative columnist for New York Daily News, contributing editor at Townhall Magazine, commentator and author
Former Special Adviser for Green Jobs under President Obama, co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, author and attorney
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The US did not want to bomb Iran and that's it. Don't need Russian threats not too. The difference is one makes no threats or some, but has your back, Russia hand is clear 8 million. Yanks say no tie it off, simple.
I noticed there are lots of people who worship Putin blindly. Obama may be incompetence, but who you expect that other one can doing better job to save the mess from huge concession? BTW, that crisis is far earlier than the time Obama take office. Putin actually just another Russian tzar who has wild ambition in the history. He is a decisive leader because he has absolutely power. Unlike Obama, he wouldn't need to worry about any obstacle from opposition when making a policy & doing it. Since all the potential opponents that can threat his throne were either in jail or escape to foreign country. And his best weapon？ The media. He learned well from soviet collapse is that he need a strong media to confront west, also propaganda is heroic image to the public. 90% media institutions are state-run in Russia and they're doing whatever they can do to negative the western. I.E As a media organization has the most number of users RT(Russian Today). How many critical report toward Putin u can read from there? Not even mentioned the radical comment filter system and hired commenter that incite lies & hate toward western.
Putin is a decisive leader.... you may not like his views, but he IS a Leader... unlike Obama.
Never thought I would see the day where Russia is leading the world. Obammy has become the butt end for all jokes.
@Pike, face it Putin has passed us, due to our pansy leader.
Russian lead the world? I'm sorry but that's sound more like a propaganda from Putin's puppy media. GDP level of this country even couldn't compare with EU, not mention the other member of BRICK country also have strong competitive power & area influence.
It's economic system is not much different from the old soviet model. Major financial income rely on energy, mine, and weapon export.
A nation which maintain by the unsustainable development model and boast itself by bully neighbor nation will never become a "world leader" !!
It's sad that it has come to this, but I respect and trust Putin more than I do obama. And just to be clear, this is obama's fault – caused by all of the secrecy, cover-ups, lies and gross incompetence.
When it became the policy of diplomacy in the USA to call names like the axis of evil and other infuriating comments boasting our superiority when we could have been more humbly diplomatic we empowered Putin. Whoever we think he is Putin is trusted at the negotiating table because he personally attends and looks everyone in the eye. This is power in itself.
Putin's power in foreign policy has to a significant extent been enable by weak US president.
When you can get someone else to think they "beat you" but they still do what you wanted them to do all along... that's called winning diplomacy.
We were not okay with chemical weapons being used in Syria. Russia ends up forcing Syria to destroy their chemical weapons. They think they "beat" us by making that happen.
But who got what they wanted? We did. That's excellent diplomacy. Who cares if they think they pulled one over on us... we got them to do what we wanted without military action.
We want Iran to be pushed further from nuclear weapons. We are getting them to destroy significan portions of their highly enriched uranium stockpiles and their capability of enriching more uranium in exchange for giving them access to some of their own money and holding off instituting planned (but not implemented) increases in oil sanctions.
Again... who cares if they think they "won" that deal. We got what we wanted with very little of importance to us given in return.
The way for diplomacy to work with a partner who dislikes you is to be willing to let them think they defeated you. If you have to publicly be seen as the victor, you can't accomplish anything diplomatically with someone who is not an ally.
Putin is going through an evolution, much like Kruschev and Gorbechoff; and a lot of people see this. I think he will change his foolish views on homosexuality soon, because he's showing wisdom in a lot of world decisions. I think he's going for the Nobel Peace prize – and to do that, you have to convince a lot of conservative thinkers that you're a powerful force of peace and world well being. Putin wants the prize, and he wants his nation to catch up to China and the US…and he knows that he needs to shed some old-fashioned bigoted views.