Bloomberg in 2015 Saw Russia’s Point in Invading Ukraine – By Spencer Ackerman (Daily Beast) / Feb 11 2020
“You have to have Russia as an ally” to advance U.S. interests, the now-Democratic presidential hopeful said in 2015, including dealing with “the crazy Islamic world.”
The oligarch running for the Democratic presidential nomination, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, appeared to rationalize Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by referencing America’s own maculate history of expansion and conquest.
Bloomberg’s remarks, flagged Tuesday by Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, were made to the Aspen Institute in February 2015. Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea was about a year old at the time, and sparked a crisis in U.S.-Russian relations that has yet to relent.
During the appearance, Bloomberg, referencing the host of geopolitical issues from Iran to China—and what he calls the “crazy Islamic world”—where Russia possessed influence, said, “You have to have Russia as an ally in these things.”
“Nobody thinks Russia should be in the Ukraine and trying to take land from an independent and sovereign country,” Bloomberg said, meandering away from a question on the unique experience of being a mayor.
“But if you really think about it,” he continued, “what would America do if we had a contiguous country where a lot of people in that country wanted to be Americans. Do Texas and California ring a bell? We just went in and took it.”
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