Peter Schweizer: West Must Stand Up to Putin

Peter Schweizer, a noted expert on the Cold War and Ronald Reagan’s role in defeating the Soviet Union, said that the United States needs to send a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin after his annexation of Crimea that he could be doomed by the very principles he is espousing.

He said on Breitbart News Saturday on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125 that if Putin believes that parts of a country “can just choose to leave a country and go to another,” then that principle should also apply to Russia. 

Schweizer said that Obama should have made it clear that the United States would be supporting–politically and not with arms–separatist movements in Russia, which could lead to the “disintegration of Russia.”

“If this is the principle he wants to live by, let it be the principle he dies by as well,” Schweizer said. 

Schweizer, the Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large who is also a William J. Casey fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, told Breitbart News Saturday co-hosts Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon that Putin has not “borne any cost” for annexing Crimea save for not being able to dine in fancy restaurants in New York City.  

“If that’s the cost, they are going to keep doing this,” he said, noting that Putin and Russia’s oligarchs can dine in the finest restaurants anywhere in the world. 

He mentioned that Russian minorities in the Baltic countries and even some parts in Poland have been claiming that they are being discriminated and this could lead to a potentially dangerous situation.

“You create this cocktail that’s fabulously destructive,” he said. “You have to stand up to it. The more it is rewarded, the more it is going to become a problem.”

He said the current situation for Putin is good for him politically because it is making him more popular within Russia and, ultimately, Putin wants power and to hold on to it.

Schweizer said that the West should have stood up to Putin earlier, and there could be forces within Russia that could remove him from power since Russia’s economy is not in good shape and Putin would be limited in his options if he were to be squeezed from forces outside of and within Russia. 

“We need to stop him in his tracks,” Schweizer said before emphasizing that supporting the status quo just emboldens Putin every time his aggression goes with any consequences.