#ukraine #crimea #russia #Донецк #Харьков #Donetsk #Kharkiv #randpaul

Paul, however, said those recommendations are misguided, given the culture and history shared by Ukraine and Russia, and the damage such gestures could cause to U.S.-Russian relations.

"The Ukraine has a long history of either being part of the Soviet Union or within that sphere," he said.

"I don't think it behooves us to tell the Ukraine what to do.

I'm not excited about saying 'hey, let's put the Ukraine in NATO' to rub Russia's nose in it."

Republicans need to remember that Russia remains a geopolitical and military power, Paul added, and that hostile rhetoric has consequences.

"We still need to be conscious of the fact that Russia has intercontinental ballistic missiles," he said.

"Though the Cold War is largely over, I think we need to have a respectful - sometimes adversarial - but a respectful relationship with Russia."

"I think we should have trade and relations, criticize them if they have human rights violations," he said.

"But for the most part, we should be very glad that we've gotten beyond such a tense situation that we're worried that any minute we could have a nuclear war.

We ought to be, I think, proud of where we've gotten with that relationship, and even when we have problems with Russia, realize that we're in a much better place than we were once upon a time."

Paul's distancing from the GOP's hawk bloc is part of a larger critique he has made of the party's approach to foreign and national security policy over the past year, from his criticism of the Obama administration's drone attacks to his opposition to the National Security Agency's surveillance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/02/25/rand-paul-gop-shouldnt-tweak-russia-over-ukraine/

[Crimea would still be part of Ukraine, were it not for the West's meddling.]

Reply · Report Post