Sen. Marcio Rubio, R-Fla., warned against undercutting former Soviet countries as “autocratic” Vladimir Putin emphasized anti-Western positions in order to retain his hold on power.

“Putin may talk tough, but he knows he’s weak,” Rubio observed at the Brookings Institute today. “Everyhere he looks he sees threats to his rule, real and imagined,” such as “a rising China” and Islamic forces to his south. And yet, “he tells his people that the biggest threat they face is NATO.”