 | Mike Rogers responds to Chris Wallace at Fox News Sunday. Presented for entertainment and for clarity: |
CHRIS WALLACE: Let's sort of talk big picture. How do you think President Obama has been handling relations with Russia versus how Vladimir Putin has been handling relations with the United States?
HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN MIKE ROGERS (R-MI): Well, I think Putin is playing chess, and I think we're playing marbles. And I don't think it's even close. If you look at the nuclear negotiations, we got our fannies handed to us. They took tactical nukes out of the equation. Huge mistake, especially for our allies in the Baltics. When you move down the list in Syria, the Russians got everything that they needed, they believe they needed in Syria. And so they've been running circles around us, and I think it's really the naive position on the National Security Council and the president's advisors that if we just keep giving things to Russia, they'll finally wake up and say, boy, the United States isn't all that bad. That is completely missing the motivations of why Russia does what Russia does. And, again, they have an interest in expanding their buffer zones by influence -- I don't think by Russian occupation -- but by influence in cases like the Crimea, I think Moldova next, and other places that it's in their interest to continue to push out that buffer zone. And, by the way, the big one that started this was the absolute retreat on our missile defense system in Poland and Czechoslovakia. It caused huge problems for our allies and emboldened the Russians, and it really has been a downhill slide. 
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