Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday of working to undermine American values and destroy the Western alliance that has acted as a counterweight to the Kremlin since the end of the Cold War.
“Putin seeks to shatter NATO. He aims to diminish the appeal of the Western democratic model and attempts to undermine America’s moral authority,” Mattis said in an address to graduates at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
“His actions are designed not to challenge our arms, at this point, but to undercut and compromise our belief in our ideals.”
Mattis said as the military power closest to the United States in terms of nuclear parity, Russia remains the biggest threat because it has “proven willing to use conventional and irregular power in violation of international norms.”
“For the first time since World War II, Russia has been the nation that has redrawn international borders by force of arms in Georgia and Ukraine, while pursuing veto authority over their neighbors’ diplomatic, economic, and security decisions,” he said.
It was Russia’s unchecked aggression in Ukraine that got it expelled from the G-8 in 2014.
But President Trump Friday again expressed a desire to let Russia back in what is now the G-7 and said he’ll probably meet with Putin this summer.
“I think it’s better to have Russia in than to have Russia out, because just like North Korea, just like somebody else, it’s much better if we get along with them, than if we don’t,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn.
In his advice to the graduates of the Naval War College, Mattis told them to not shy away from “hard problems and tougher solutions.”
“Keep your wits about you. Keep your grace under fire, your civility with subordinates, inspiring those you lead with humility and intellectual rigor in reconciling war’s grim realities with your political leaders’ aspirations,” Mattis said.
