WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 (UPI) — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that the United States should apply more pressure on increased Russian military aggression.
“I remain convinced that we need a concerted effort to really up the costs on Russia and in particular on Russian President Vladimir Putin. I think we have not done enough,” Clinton said in a speech at Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Sputnik News reported.
“I’m in the category of people who wanted us to do more in response to the annexation of Crimea and the continuing destabilization of Ukraine,” Clinton added.
The United States and the European Union have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia since the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014. At least 6,800 people have been killed since fighting began in the Donetsk and neighboring regions, according to U.N. estimates.
President Petro Poroshenko met with European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker two weeks ago in Brussels where he said Russia must do its part to end fighting in Ukraine.
Clinton also said that the Iran nuclear deal negotiated between the P5+1 countries and Tehran must be enforced with “vigor and vigilance.” She said would not hesitate to take military action and protect the United States and its allies.
Russia’s objective “is to stymie, to confront, to undermine American power whenever and wherever they can,” Clinton added.
Clinton, as secretary of state, presented her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in March 2009 with a red “reset” button as a gift for the Russian government.
“I would like to present you with a little gift that represents what President Obama and Vice President Biden and I have been saying and that is: ‘We want to reset our relationship, and so we will do it together,’” she said at the time.
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