The United States must severely punish Russia for seizing power in Crimea, National Review Editor Rich Lowry says.
"We can't let it go. We can never accept the legitimacy of it, and we have to apply sanctions that will hurt and persist," Lowry told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"[We must] downgrade Russia diplomatically to more like a pariah state . . . cutting off the Russian elite from Western banks, from Western real estate, from Western visas, which are really important to them.."
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Lowry says Russian President Vladimir Putin is making an "entirely rational play" based on how the United States reacted in 2008 when Putin invaded Georgia, smashing into two provinces.
"All is forgiven and forgotten when President [Barack] Obama comes into power and starts the reset," Lowry said.
He added that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comparison of Putin to Adolf Hitler was somewhat overstated.
"There is some 1930s in this, obviously, because one of Hitler's rationalizations for his aggressive acts was supposedly protecting ethnic Germans across the border," Lowry said.
"That was the justification Putin forwarded here, but he's obviously nothing like Hitler," Lowry said.
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