Mitt Romney said that President Obama’s comments about flexibility in dealings with Russia were particularly troubling since Russia is the United States’ “No. 1 geopolitical foe” in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Monday.
From the rush transcript (emphasis added):
Either with nuclear arms discussions or it has to do with missile defense sites and what he did with nuclear weapons already as well as the new treaty and to reduce our missile defense sites in Alaska, from the original plan. These are very unfortunate developments and if he’s planning on doing more, if he has things he’s willing to do, this is without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe, they fight every cause for the world’s worst actors, the idea that he has more flexibility in mind for Russia is very, very troubling indeed.
Blitzer followed up, asking Romney whether he meant that Russia was a bigger foe than Iran, North Korea or China. Romney has previously called Iran the biggest threat since the Soviet Union. Romney defended the term “geopolitical foe” to mean something different, citing its history of siding with “world’s worst actors” at the United Nations:
A nuclear North Korea is already troubling enough, but when these terrible actors pursue their course in the world and we go to the United Nations looking for ways to stop them, when Assad for instance is looking to murder his own people. And who always stands up with the world’s worst actors, it’s always Russia and China. As a massive nuclear power, Russia is the geopolitical foe.
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