Republicans continue to blast the response of Secretary of State John Kerry and the Obama Administration to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying it leaves the United States looking weak and indecisive, the New York Post reported.

Kerry blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin for carrying out a “brazen act of aggression” by dispatching troops to Ukraine’s Crimean  peninsula  the previous day.

Although Kerry threatened there would be “very serious repercussions” for the Russian invasion, he all but ruled out U.S. military action, saying President Obama would prefer to join the UN and other “international entities” in imposing economic sanctions if Putin refuses to withdraw his forces.

“This is a time for diplomacy,” Kerry said on ABC’s “This Week,” declaring that Washington will “engage diplomatically” in order to “steer this away from an increase in the tension in the in the level of the crisis.”

Republicans sharply criticized Obama’s handling of the situation, with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers saying the administration’s handling of the invasion showed that Putin is “running circles around us.”

Rogers, a Michigan Republican, urged the administration to expel Russia from the G8 group of industrialized nations and said Congress should impose economic sanctions.
“Putin is playing chess, and we are playing marbles,” Rogers added.

Sen. Lindsey Graham called Obama “a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression” and said Obama should move to “suspend Russian membership in the G8 and G20 for at least a year starting right now.”

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Marco Rubio demanded that Obama and his administration admit that its effort to “reset” relations with Moscow is dead, BizPack Review reported.

“The Russians have basically violated every major international treaty they’ve ever entered into,” the Florida Republican said. “This government is basically a government of liars.”

Rubio added that Russia is “increasingly behaving like an enemy of international peace and international norms.”

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