Mike Pompeo: There Is One Primary Reason That Putin Is Acting Aggressive During Biden Admin

Former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is acting aggressively during the Biden-era because the Russians do not view Biden as credible.

When asked if the situation with Russia amassing troops near Ukraine could be brought back from the brink, Pompeo said, “it’s awful late.”

“The real hard work of deterrence would have happened a long time ago, a year ago, when President Putin demanded that we give him a new START treaty extension, we gave it to him for nothing,” he said. “When they had Russian cyberattacks and they shut down the Colonial Pipeline, we told them you can only attack certain sectors, but 16 are off-limits. When we left Afghanistan in the way we did — those were the places where the administration had a chance to establish deterrence.”

“Putin saw this and so these tactical things today about whether our families will stay in Ukraine, we’ve got to the right thing and take care of our families,” he continued. “But these tactical things aren’t what causes Vladimir Putin to recalculate his cost-benefit analysis. I think they don’t see President Biden as credible. I think they see all this talking, these pieces of paper being exchanged just not credible.”

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Lucas Tomlinson live from the White House — Lucas, thank you.

Joining us now, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, now a FOX News contributor.

Welcome back to “FOX News Sunday”.

MIKE POMPEO, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Good morning. It’s great to be with you.

BREAM: All right. Let’s start with the U.K. and it’s telling us that it’s discovered a plot that Russia is trying to put a Russian-backed or Russian- sympathetic individual as the new leader in Kyiv.

The NSA here on the U.S., stateside, says this: This kind of plotting is deeply concerning. The Ukrainian people have the sovereign right to determine their own future. We stand with our democratically elected partners in Ukraine, a number of Russian officials calling this misinformation.

Their embassy in the U.K. saying this: We are resolutely calling upon London to stop the stupid rhetorical provocations, quite dangerous in the current heated situation, and to contribute to the genuine diplomatic efforts aimed at ensuring reliable guarantees of European security.

Given word of this potential plot, which could it be done short of force, how does it play out? Where are we this morning?

POMPEO: Shannon, it doesn’t surprise me, I assume that the U.K. reporting is real.

Vladimir Putin has wanted to put Russia-friendly leaders in the capital in Kyiv and control of that country for an awfully long time now. He’s tried to do so through political gamesmanship, coercion, all the kinds of things, the tools of statecraft that are sub-rosa, not overt.

Now he appears to be massing troops not only inside of Western Russia, but inside of Belarus as well. A short run down into Ukraine from there, preparing coercive force, the capacity to change what the Ukrainian people want from where they are today with President Zelensky running an important country, a country that matters to the United States and wants to put someone friendly to Russia.

And so, he puts this in the newspapers, in “Pravda”, the Russian outlets. This is Russian propaganda.

Vladimir Putin knows that the Ukraine is not going to attack Russia. To suggest somehow that there is a threat from NATO or from the Ukraine is just propaganda, an excuse for Vladimir Putin to do what he ultimately wants, which is to extend his influence, his authority, his power, his control into the former Warsaw Pact countries.

BREAM: So, you mentioned the multiple fronts potentially unfolding. There is face-to-face diplomacy. Our Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, they’ve had conversations.

We’re told the next step in this is that the U.S. is going to provide written answers to some of Russia’s demands. They’ve included things like Ukraine can never join NATO. There are critics of this who think they’re worried that the U.S., whatever we put in writing, Russia’s going to use as a context for moving in. We’re told that there are now conversations about getting our diplomatic personnel out of Kyiv.

This sounds like it’s escalating. How do we bring it back from the brink? Can we?

POMPEO: Shannon, it’s awful late. The real hard work of deterrence would have happened a long time ago, a year ago, when President Putin demanded that we give him a new START treaty extension, we gave it to him for nothing.

When they had Russian cyberattacks and they shut down the Colonial Pipeline, we told them you can only attack certain sectors, but 16 are off- limits. When we left Afghanistan in the way we did — those were the places where the administration had a chance to establish deterrence.

Putin saw this