Russian President Vladimir Putin has "gotten away with a lot" over the past eight years, but he'll need to change his ways if a true reset is to occur between his nation and the United States, former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton believes.
"I think the Putin style of foreign relations is one that respects strength in its friends and in its opponents, and they have tested the Obama administration over these last eight years," Bolton told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program.
"They have repeatedly seen [President Barack] Obama give way when Russia asserts itself," Bolton said. "It's just one thing after another - giving up our missile defense, national missile defense assets in Poland and the Czech Republic, signing a disastrous strategic arms treaty with Russia, setting red lines in Syria. This list goes on longer than we have."
Putin's exploits have included "expanding Russian influence in eastern and central Europe and annexing Crimea from Ukraine through military force," said Bolton, and "expanding Russian influence in the Middle East is a dimension we haven't seen in 50 years."
Further, said Bolton, the intelligence community believes Russia attempted to meddle in the United States elections, as Putin "defines Russian foreign policy entirely on the basis of Russian national interests."
But while Putin sees strength through nationalism, other world leaders, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, call for compassion as a means to defeat radical Islam.
"That is one reason chancellor Merkel is in trouble in the elections we'll see in Germany later this year," said Bolton. "You've seen reaction all over Europe, that the European union migration policy has not been just inadequate, but left Europe very much in danger."
There is no evidence that Germany recognizes the danger it's in, he continued, but he believes it will be "fairly easy" to reverse Obama's policies on refugees.
"People in a war zone particularly don't want to live where they are now, [but they] don't have the right to come to the United States," said Bolton. "Asylum is granted to refugee applicants if they show a well-founded fear of persecution based on political views or ethnicity, not just because they're in a dangerous place. If we insisted people meet the standards and we said are these people risks to the United States, things would change dramatically."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.