Krauthammer’s Take: Putin Trying to Prove that the U.S. Is Not an Ally Nations Can Rely On

The Russian warplanes intercepted Thursday by NATO in the North Sea are Russian president Vladimir Putin’s objective, “which is to say that the Cold War settlement of 1992 is dead,” says Charles Krauthammer.

“In that settlement it was understood that Eastern Europe was now free and could choose Europe and would be protected by NATO and the U.S.,” said Krauthammer on Special Report. “That was a done deal. He’s undoing the deal. The buzzing of these countries is a way to say, ‘We can penetrate and probe, threaten, and we’re going to see whether the United States is an ally you can rely on.’”

It may be an effective show of strength, suggest Krauthammer: “Look at what [the U.S. is] not doing in Ukraine — again, not even providing defensive weaponry. Do you think [the U.S.] will be there, particularly under Obama, if [you need it]?”