Obama's foreign policy in regard to Russia was 8 years of disaster. From the very onset with
the embarrassing "Reset" button (which was actually mispelled in Russian and ended up translating to "overload," but even the concept of 'The Reset Button' was a joke, as Putin had just officially transitioned the country to an autocracy in 2008 and still had tanks in a European democratic country), to non-responses in Crimea, Ukraine, and throughout Europe; to Obama's embarrassing 2012 campaign where he scolded Romney that "the Cold War is over, and the 1980s called and want their foreign policy back," to Obama resisting sanctions and punishment for Russia in 2014 (
and even tempering the Senate & House legislations to sanction Russia after they were passed unanimously in the Senate; this was Obama's biggest misstep with Russia IMO), to happily supporting Russia to remain in the G8 (now cutely referred to the "G7+1") for a decade+, to the US election in 2016, it's an instance where "No Drama Obama" hurt not only American and European interests abroad, but also particularly Obama's party and Clinton's election chances in 2016.
Not that Obama was any better than any of our European allies (particularly Silvio Burlisconi or Sarkozy), or Bush (whose ate out of Putin's hand after Putin was the first to call him on 9/11; and who tied himself up with the stupid "saw into his soul" remark from earlier in 2001), or especially Bill Clinton, but our chickens have come home to roost with regard to Russia. There is a tradition with American presidents for the last 30 years. American presidents, Republican and Democratic, have stood aside as Russia devolves back into autocracy, dissolves Democracy movements, assassinates foreign citizens, invades European democracies, props up groups like ISIS or Al Qaeda, sells Nuclear material to Iran, ruthlessly murders civilians, interferes in foreign elections...... And then as soon as the president is out of office, they publish a memoir of their years in office and their big regrets are "not being firm enough on Russia" or "trusting Putin to do the right thing." George HW Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush all followed that blueprint: let Russian autocrats walk all over them, do nothing while in office (GHWB has the best record of all three though), leave office, write a memoir where they regret their decisions, and then the sitting president does the same thing. I'll guarantee this will be a chapter in Obama's forthcoming presidential memoir, where his major foreign policy regret will be not being firm with Russia/Putin.
And of course, now, we have a simply
Pro-Russian disaster of a president, and a significant portion of the Right has completely flopped over to the other side of where they were 4+ years ago, using formerly
progressive arguments to defend Putin or Russia. I was stunned and saddened that when presented with a question about Russian interference in our elections, Trump
defended Russia and
attacked the US by asking, "And doesn't the US do the same thing?!" or something to that effect, which is the type of bull shit argument that would more commonly come from a Stalin apoligist in Academia, not the
Republican president (or president elect) of the United States. While this president (Trump) is an utter nightmare for the country, it has one unintended benefit... Democrats and fellow liberals have finally taken the blinders off when it comes to Putin and Russia.
Interestingly enough, Congress has furtively opposed Russia, sought sanctions, and been an obstacle to Russia's invasion of European countries, while 4 consecutive administrations have sought to temper Congress' disapproval with Russia, and with disastrous results.
