Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama's 2012 Republican opponent, Sunday criticized the president for failing to get tougher with Russia.
"I think effective leaders typically are able to see the future to a certain degree and then try and take actions to shape it in some way," Romney told CBS' "Face the Nation." "And that's, of course, what this president has failed to do."
Romney called Obama naïve regarding Russia, and charged "his faulty judgment about Russia's intentions and objectives has led to a number of foreign policy challenges that we face.
" And unfortunately, not having anticipated Russia's intentions, the president wasn't able to shape the kinds of events that may have been able to prevent the kinds of circumstances that you're seeing in the Ukraine as well as the things that you're seeing in Syria. We really need to understand that Russia has very different interests than ours. "
After all, Romney contended, "When we saw the demonstrations going on in Ukraine and we recognized that Russia has a major base in Sebastopol, in Crimea...it couldn't be a surprise to folks that Russia might take the opportunity to grab that territory. After all, we see reports saying that Russian soldiers came in without Russian insignia, that their trucks didn't have Russian insignia -- this had been prepared for some time."
He urged earlier action, such as working with allies to develop sanctions.
"These kinds of things had the potential of keeping Russia from making a devastating move, " Romney said.