Giuliani: Obama Can't Stand Up to Putin

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani says President Barack Obama doesn't have what it takes to prevail against the Russian president as the United States and Russia battle over the fate of government-secrets leaker Edward Snowden.

"That's not a fair match, between [President Vladimir] Putin and Obama," Giuliani said Wednesday on "Fox & Friends."

"Who would you give greater odds to catch a fugitive, a former KGB agent or a former community organizer? Give me a break. A KGB officer, you know, is working him over," said Giuliani.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contract worker, leaked documents about American surveillance programs. The Obama administration is seeking his extradition from Moscow to face espionage charges.

Putin said Tuesday that Snowden hasn't committed a crime on Russian soil and is thus a "free man" who can choose where he goes, The New York Times reports.

"We can only extradite some foreign nationals to the countries with which we have the relevant international agreements on extradition," Putin said. "With the United States, we have no such agreement."

Giuliani said the president's weakness and inexperience are obvious in his handling of the Snowden saga.

"Obama doesn't know how to play this game," the former mayor and federal prosecutor said. "[Putin] is an experienced manipulator of intelligence, of world power, against a man who has … not-very-well developed views and no experience doing this."

The United States is paying the price for electing a president unfit for office, Giuliani said. "This is incompetence, because we elected a president who was never prepared to be president, and he hasn't figured the job out yet."

Giuliani contrasted Obama's handling of Snowden to former President Ronald Reagan's handling of the Iranian hostage issue in 1980-81.

"Ronald Reagan came in, they looked in Ronald Reagan's eyes, Iranian hostages released in one minute — because they saw in his eyes, 'You don't release them, baby, and there are real red lines,'" Giuliani said.