Russia’s warning to NATO: If you start a war, we will choke the life out of you
Russia’s warning to NATO: If you start a war, we will choke the life out of you
Sen. Tom Cotton, being considered by President-elect Donald Trump as a possible choice for defense secretary, on Thursday called for continued U.S. support of NATO and labeled Russian President Vladimir Putin an “adversary” in remarks that may put him at odds with the incoming commander-in-chief. Two days after Trump and Putin talked on the telephone about greater cooperation, Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and former 101st Airborne Division platoon leader in Iraq, said, “To improve our relations with Russia, what needs to happen foremost is Vladimir Putin needs to have a new set of boundaries,” an apparent reference to Russian expansionism in Crimea and Ukraine.
“It would be good, of course, if we had a better relationship with our adversaries,” Cotton said, but Putin will first “have to recognize that we are going to stand by our alliance structures.” He called on Russia to exhibit a “sense of reality” about U.S. support for NATO and understand that the alliance was “not a threat to Russia.” In numerous congressional hearings, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford have also called Russia an “adversary” and the No. 1 threat to the U.S. Cotton, who met with Trump on Tuesday in New York, was responding to questions including whether the Trump administration would lift sanctions on Russia at the fourth annual Defense One summit on national security issues in Washington, D.C.
