Hillary Clinton talked Russia again on Tuesday night, and while she steered clear of drawing another parallel between President Vladimir Putin and Hitler, she accused him of trying to “rewrite” Europe’s boundaries by illegally annexing Crimea.
“I hope there is not another Cold War,” Clinton said during the Q&A portion of an event for the Board of Trade Metropolitan Montreal in Canada, as quoted by CNN. “Obviously, nobody wants to see that. I think that is primarily up to Putin.”
The former secretary of state added that Putin is trying to “rewrite the boundaries of post-World War II Europe” by annexing Crimea, where residents voted overwhelmingly Sunday in favor of breaking away from Ukraine and joining with Russia.
Clinton echoed the U.S. and its Western allies’ belief that Putin’s move was illegal, according to CNN, and warned that allowing the annexation to move ahead would stir up trouble for other countries in the region.
“If he is allowed to get away with that, I think you will see a lot of other countries either directly facing Russian aggression or suborned with their political system so that they are so intimidated that in effect they are transformed into vassals, not sovereign democracies,” she said, as quoted by CNN. “There is a lot at stake here.”
Clinton also suggested the U.S. give more support to the new Ukrainian government and to efforts to expand independent gas and energy production in Europe in order to combat Russian influence, according to CNN.
