“Putin is not acting out of a position of strength. He’s acting out of a position of weakness,” Deputy NSA Tony Blinken to Candy Crowley on State of the Union

Deputy National Securty Advisor Tony Blinken joined CNN anchor Candy Crowley on today’s STATE OF THE UNION to discuss some alarming recent security developments related to the missing Malaysian airliner in the China Sea and the Russian incursion in Ukraine.

Blinken described the U.S. personnel contributing to the investigation into what happened to the Malaysian aircraft.  In response to reports that two passengers on the aircraft may have used stolen passport identification to board the aircraft, Blinken asserted that it was too early to know if terrorism was the reason for what appears to be a downed airplane.

Blinken also defended President Obama’s foreign policy posture in the crisis in Ukraine.  In response to criticism that President Obama has been weakened in his diplomatic efforts to end the crisis in Ukraine by his decision not to execute airstrikes in Syria, Blinken said, “What Putin is seeing is the president mobilizing the international community, both in support of Ukraine and Isolate Russia for its actions in Ukraine… Putin is not acting out of a position of strength. He’s acting out of a position of weakness…A country that had a government that the Russians supported and that was taking aggressive action against its own people has left.”Blinken added, “A government that is more oriented toward the west has come in and that’s what Putin was afraid of. And as a result, what we’ve seen now is the international community mobilized against the actions he’s taken as a result of the president’s leadership. So, I think what you’re seeing is the United States leading in this effort and the president doing the leading. The notion that this is somehow a result of Syria makes very little sense to me. This is about Ukraine…”

For the full transcript of this interview, please visit: bit.ly/1fi6rCQ

State of the Union with Candy Crowley airs Sundays at 9:00am and noon Eastern on CNN/U.S..

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