Former Vice President Dick Cheney doesn't like it when he hears his friends say, "It's just Crimea," referring to the Russian takeover of that portion of Ukraine.
"It's not just the Crimea," Cheney said Monday on Fox News Channel's
"Hannity."
"It's a significant effort on [Russian President Vladimir Putin's] part to reverse the downfall, if you will, of the Soviet Union and try to regain a lot of that territory, which voted for independence and sovereignty as the old Soviet Union fell apart."
Cheney sees a sense of resignation in most in the West that Crimea is a lost cause. Russian troops rode into the southern peninsula of Ukraine late last month and have been occupying ever since. Putin said he is concerned because many ethnic Russians live in Crimea.
A March 16
referendum has been set for voters to determine whether Crimea will remain part of Ukraine or join the Russian Federation. Ukraine says the vote goes against the country's constitution.
Even former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said
Sunday that Crimea will not slip out of Russia's hands.
Cheney agreed with many others that economic sanctions and military aid should be considered.
"Tomorrow, if Putin is successful in the Crimea, who's to say he won't decide to tell the folks up in Lithuania or Latvia or Estonia he wants part of their territory because it's got Russians on it?"
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