GOP lawmakers press administration to get tougher with Russia

House Republican lawmakers on Thursday urged the Obama administration to make a tougher response to Russia following an escalation of violence in Ukraine.

“We believe the U.S. must immediately take actions to respond to Russia’s threats to European security and to change President Putin’s calculus,” Reps. Mike Rogers (Ala.) and Michael Turner (Ohio), both subcommittee chairman on the Armed Services panel, said in a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry.

{mosads}Rogers chairs the panel’s Strategic Forces subcommittee, while Turner chairs the Tactical Air and Land subcommittee.

“In our opinion, the administration must immediately move to update the U.S. defense policy and force posture in Europe,” the pair wrote. “These policies, which have not been updated to reflect that Russia has no interest in being a partner to the West, and, in fact, views the West as a military threat, were naive at inception and are simply dangerous at present.”

Their letter comes hours after White House chief of staff Denis McDonough called recent Russian actions inside Ukraine “very worrisome.”

Russia last year annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and has been supporting pro-Moscow separatist groups in the east of the country, rupturing relations with the international community. Reports have also suggested that Russian troops had crossed the border.

Violence between Ukraine and separatist groups has increased in recent days. On Thursday, an artillery shell struck a bus in the eastern town of Donetsk, killing 13, according to reports.

Putin recently hinted he might deploy nuclear weapons to the annexed territory.

“You don’t deal with a thug like Vladimir Putin by asking nicely.  He breaks treaties, he invades countries and then stations his nuclear forces on their soil, and he cozies up to terrorist regimes like [Syrian President Bashar] Assad’s, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and the mullahs in Tehran. What’s next? Who’s next?” Rogers said in a statement Thursday.

“Concessions on missile defense and arms control only emboldened the former KGB officer,” he added. “We cannot continue to wait for the Administration to wake up and see that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s ‘reset’ was a failure from day one.”

“We must face the reality in front of us: Putin is an adversary of the United States,” Turner said.

He said it was “imperative” that the administration “abandon the false narrative of what they want Russia to be and shift their focus, strategy, and posture to what Putin’s actions are.”