President Mikhail Gorbachev dissolved the Soviet Union in 1991; Putin, a former KGB officer, was in the early stages of his political career at the time.
“[Putin]’s trying to take NATO apart — to weaken it. We need a strong NATO not just for Russia, but for the emergence of China,” said Romney, who warned of a surge in Russian aggression during his 2012 presidential campaign.
Romney told host Chuck Todd that one thing the West can do is work to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a gas pipeline that is to run from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a GOP-led effort to impose sanctions on that natural-gas pipeline.
“We should let him know that that Nord Stream 2 pipeline is not going to operate,” Romney said of Putin. “He’s not going to have that wealth if he does any action to overthrow the government in Ukraine — that’s getting shut down.“