Ex-Pentagon Russia official: Administration needs to do more to deter Putin

The United States needs to do more to deter Russian aggression, the Pentagon’s former top Russian policy expert said Wednesday.

“We have to actually deter,” said Evelyn Farkas, who until Friday was the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. “Some of that has to do with where we move our forces.”

Speaking to a reporters roundtable hosted by the Defense Writers Group, Farkas offered her insight into Russian President Vladimir Putin and broke with her former bosses to advocate for more shows of force to deter the Kremlin.

{mosads}“Certainly I’ve advocated for things internally, and I have personal views that may be further afield or may be slightly different than what the current administration’s position is,” she said. “I’m not leaving because of policy differences.”

Chief among Farkas’s suggestions is to have a substantial number of U.S. troops permanently stationed in eastern NATO territory.

That would violate the terms of a NATO-Russia framework agreement. But, Farkas said, the Russians have already broken the agreement with their actions in Crimea and Ukraine.

“Russia’s broken it, but somehow we’ve decided that we and our allies are going to kind of keep up with the letter of it,” she said. “Although maybe not the spirit, because I do think what we’re doing with the rotational deployment and activities is not in the spirit, which is great.”

Another step the United States can take, she said, is showing more support to countries that feel threatened by Russia besides Ukraine, such as Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In that regard, she commended Secretary of State John Kerry for going through central Asia during his trip abroad this week.

“The countries around Russia need our political attention. They also need our economic assistance, and then they need our military assistance,” she said.

Putin’s actions are unpredictable, she said. But she did offer what she thinks his motives are for intervening in Syria.

First is to keep Syrian President Bashar Assad in power, at least until a different leader the Russians favor is found. Second is to make sure a precedent isn’t set for regime change for fear Putin might be next. And third is to demonstrate Russia’s global power.

“He got very upset when President Obama called Russia a regional power,” Farkas said. “He wants to demonstrate that Russia is global power, and he wants to demonstrate that unfortunately not by cooperating with the United States on Syria thus far, but really by countering us.”