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"I think Putin is playing chess, and I think we're playing marbles. And I don't think it's even close," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., told "Fox News Sunday."
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... But Republicans nevertheless are blaming Obama in part for Putin's aggression, pointing to a series of steps, or missteps, over the last five years.
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Rogers said the first was the controversial 2009 decision to abandon a missile-defense agreement with Poland and the Czech Republic. The administration argued at the time that it no longer needed the infrastructure to counter Iran and could make do by upgrading existing interceptors.
But Russia was watching.
"It caused huge problems for our allies and emboldened the Russians," Rogers said. "And it really has been a downhill slide."
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Romney stood by his claim that Russia is a "geopolitical foe."
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"The Russian government has felt free to intervene militarily in Ukraine because the United States, along with Europe, has failed to make clear there would be serious, potentially irreparable consequences to such action," Sen. Bob Corker, top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Thursday.
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