At the G7 summit in Quebec this weekend, President Trump said that Russia should be readmitted into the international group of leaders and blamed the Obama administration for its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. On Sunday, former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice called his comments a “disgraceful statement.”
Russia was expelled from the then-G8 in 2014 as punishment for its aggression.
“The fact of the matter is Russia had invaded Georgia. It then invaded Ukraine. We rallied the entire EU and many other partners to impose tough sanctions on Russia for its annexation,” Rice told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We supported the Ukrainian government to build up its defensive military capacity and, along with our G7 partners, we agreed that Russia should no longer be part of this community of the G8.”
She called the president’s apparent welcome of Russia “very worrisome and very destructive.”
Mr. Trump told reporters upon his departure from the summit for Singapore on Saturday that President Obama had “allowed Russia to take Crimea.” Rice called that notion “outrageous.”
“The U.S. has long upheld international law. This was the most brazen violation of another country’s sovereignty that’s occurred in recent years,” she said.
“For the president of the United States to blame his predecessor rather than to understand Russia is our adversary, Russia has taken on behavior that’s absolutely reprehensible, including being responsible for shooting a civilian aircraft out of the skies and killing hundreds of people,” Rice said. “For the president of the United States to suggest all is forgotten, that that doesn’t matter, that we are fine with one country annexing another country’s sovereign territory and we should just welcome them with open arms back into a community of democracies is outrageous.”
Rice said that the U.S now finds itself in a “very dangerous moment” as Mr. Trump appears to be further embracing Russia, saying his actions and rhetoric “leaves the U.S. isolated in the world” and our closest allies “wondering if they can count on us and we on them.”
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