With Biden, Putin knows 'weakness is provocative' as he seeks to reconstruct pre-Soviet 'empire': Cotton
Fox News
Russian President Vladimir Putin potentially sees an opportunity to continue his alleged goal of reconstructing the Russian Empire, Sen. Tom Cotton told "Life, Liberty & Levin."
In an interview on "Life, Liberty & Levin," Cotton told host Mark Levin that recouping as much former landmass as he can remains Putin's aim.
"Weakness is provocative, and Joe Biden has given our adversaries like Vladimir Putin every reason to believe that he will respond to a crisis with weakness — that's what he did for 50 years as a senator and vice president," Cotton said.
"But it counts now that he's president," he continued. "So if you look at how we got into this situation, I think it frames the question well: Vladimir Putin has been talking about pretexts, red herrings. He can't let NATO's include Ukraine. Well, there's no plan for Ukraine to join NATO. He can't tolerate military exercises in Ukraine. We don't conduct military exercises in Ukraine."