Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama are playing games, according to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Except they aren’t playing the same game.
In an appearance on CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ the former Republican presidential candidate compared Obama’s Syrian strategy to playing a lucky game of tic-tac-toe — while Putin is playing a tactical game of chess.
“What you have strategically… you have Putin playing chess,” Gingrich said. “You have Obama playing, frankly, a very lucky game of tic-tac-toe.”
Gingrich went on to note that Putin did not step into the Syrian situation to help the United States, but instead to maximize Russian influence.
“Putin stepped in, but he didn’t step in to save Barack Obama,” said Gingrich. “Putin stepped in to maximize Russian influence in the Middle East. That is strategically a defeat for the United States, the biggest defeat for us since the 1970s.”
The former House Speaker continued his criticism of Obama’s strategy for dealing with Putin, saying Russian influence had increased dramatically as a result.
“The objective fact is Russian influence in the Middle East increased dramatically. We’re now relying on the Russians,” said Gingrich. “We’re now following from behind, not leading from behind. This is not a good long-term position.”
Gingrich has been extremely vocal with his condemnation of Putin’s actions this week. After Putin published an op-ed criticizing American exceptionalism in The New York Times earlier this week, Gingrich immediately responded by calling Putin a “dictator” and a “thug.”
“We should laugh at him [Putin] when he tries to lecture America about exceptionalism, because he ain’t exceptional,” said Gingrich. “He’s just one more in a long tradition of dictators and thugs.”
