Mitt Romney issues statement on Russia and US foreign policy: ‘The 80's called and we didn’t answer’

Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney issued a statement in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Wednesday and said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s "…Ukraine invasion is the first time in 80 years that a great power has moved to conquer a sovereign nation. It is without justification, without provocation and without honor."

"Putin’s impunity predictably follows our tepid response to his previous horrors in Georgia and Crimea, our naive efforts at a one-sided 'reset,' and the shortsightedness of 'America First.'"

Romney continued, "The '80s called' and we didn’t answer," referencing Barack Obama’s line during a 2012 presidential debate with the Senator during which Obama mocked Romney for suggesting that Russia was America’s number one geo-political foe.

"The peril of again looking away from Putin’s tyranny falls not just on the people of the nations he has violated, it falls on America as well. History shows that a tyrant’s appetite for conquest is never satiated."

"America and our allies must answer the call to protect freedom by subjecting Putin and Russia to the harshest economic penalties, by expelling them from global institutions, and by committing ourselves to the expansion and modernization of our national defense."

In 2012, as the Republican presidential candidate Romney slammed Obama for telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev he'd have more "flexibility" toward the country after his election.

Romney told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on March 26, 2012, "This is to Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe. They fight every cause for the world’s worst actors. The idea that [President Barack Obama] has some more flexibility in mind for Russia is very, very troubling, indeed."

The comment was ripped by the media and Democrats as a gaffe but to many is now seen as almost prophetic.

Then-Vice President Joe Biden said at the time, "Governor Romney is mired in a Cold War mindset."

Romney's comments have been cited many times in the past few years since, including in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea, during the media coverage of Russian "collusion," as well as during the Robert Mueller investigation, with even Democrats now admitting that Romney was correct.

Romney tweeted Monday in advance of the invasion, "Vladimir Putin’s KGB mentality drives his malevolent obsession for repression and regression: he shamelessly abuses the sovereignty of a democratic nation to foster his foolhardy dream of rebuilding a soviet empire. The response from NATO must be unified and withering."