Russian President Vladimir Putin is continuing to make some fairly smart moves from his vantage point as he angles toward helping Greece out of its financial crisis, Pete Hoekstra, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, tells
Newsmax TV.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with Putin in St. Petersburg on Friday, but the Russians say a loan to Greece was not discussed. Still, the possibility has the West concerned.
Putin sees an opportunity to create a crack and a rift within the European Union, Hoekstra said Monday on "Newsmax Prime."
"It's a smart move on Putin's part, and it's no different than what he's been doing in other places where people sense a vacuum of western European or American leadership," he said. "Take a look at what he's been doing in Egypt for the last number of months."
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China could well be playing a role in any Greece talks as well, Hoekstra said.
"China has its own global aspirations," he said. "What it's doing in the South China Sea, the investments that it's making throughout the Middle East, the investments that it's making throughout Africa."
America has been called the world's sole superpower, but "that is not real," Hoekstra said.
"From an economic standpoint, China is a powerhouse and you can't discount what Russia is doing," he said. "Both of these countries are doing everything that they can to challenge American global leadership and they're doing it in a very, very smart way."
Russia also reportedly is working on a microwave weapon that can wipe out the electronics systems of drones and precision warheads. The weapon would be a smaller version of the U.S. military's CHAMP, which can be used to take out electronics in a building.
Drones are hard to knock down, Hoekstra said, because they can fly slower and lower than jet fighters.
"You have a weapon like this, you target it into the sky and take away the electronics out of a drone, take away its cameras and those types of things, but most importantly take away its operating system," he said. "It's a smart weapon to have."
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