Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state on Wednesday took a tougher stance on Russia than the president-elect — calling the country dangerous because of its global ambitions and bombing of civilians.
“Russia today poses a danger, but it is not unpredictable in advancing its own interests. It has invaded Ukraine, including the taking of Crimea, and supported Syrian forces that brutally violate the laws of war,” Rex Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at his confirmation hearing.
“Our NATO allies are right to be alarmed at a resurgent Russia,” said the ExxonMobil CEO, adding that Russia had no right to invade and annex Crimea in 2014 — and that if Moscow tried to seize more territory by force, the US and its allies should stop it.
“If Russia acts with force, that requires a proportional show of force that there will be no more taking of territory,” Tillerson said.
He charged that the Obama administration was overly timid in its response to the annexation of Crimea, and should have told the Russians that the land grab “stops right here.”
But he refused to call Vladimir Putin a war criminal when pressed about the Russian president’s brutal repression at home and military action abroad.
“I would not use that term,” Tillerson told Sen. Marco Rubio, who has said he has “serious concerns” about Trump’s pick for America’s top diplomatic post.
Rubio (R-Fla.) said Russia’s seizing of Crimea, targeting of innocent civilians in Aleppo and support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should not make it hard to say that Putin committed war crimes.
Tillerson said also it’s a “fair assumption” that Putin orchestrated Moscow’s meddling in the US 2016 presidential election.
He opposed US sanctions levied on Moscow following its annexation of the Crimean peninsula, penalties that cost ExxonMobil hundreds of millions of dollars.
But he said he would support sanctions if a Trump administration believed they were necessary.
Asked whether Trump agreed with his tough positions, the oilman said he had only a general conversation with the president-elect on the topic — “in a broad construct and in terms of the principals that are going to guide” Russia policy, he said.
Tillerson also said that if China doesn’t enforce UN sanctions on North Korea, the US should consider actions that would compel Beijing to comply.
He vowed to fight ISIS, and said he rejected Trump’s inflammatory comments about Mexican “rapists” crossing the border.
“Mexico is a longstanding neighbor and friend of this country,” he said. “I would never characterize an entire population with any single term.”