Calling the current US administration "dumb", former President Donald Trump on Saturday said he would have never allowed the Ukraine situation to unravel like this, reported Sputnik news agency.
Recalling his term as a President at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, Trump said that the world was a peaceful place because America was strong.
Stressing that Russia "respected" America under his administration, he called current President Joe Biden "weak and grossly incompetent", which has led to the current situation in Ukraine.
Washington was perceived as "powerful, cunning, and smart" back then, but "now, we're a stupid country", Sputnik quoted Trump as saying.
The former US president said that US' pathetic withdrawal from Afghanistan led Russian President Vladimir Putin to decide on the special military operations in Ukraine.
Calling Putin "smart", he said the NATO countries "are not so smart, they are looking the opposite of smart."
"The problem is not that Putin is smart, which of course he is smart, but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb," the news agency quoted Trump. The former US President was quoted having stated that anti-Russia sanctions are weak since Moscow has survived such measures imposed previously.
"Putin is playing Biden like a drum," he said, adding this would not have happened had he been the President, since it would have been easy for him "to stop this travesty."
"The world hasn't been this chaotic since World War II. I stand as the only President of the 21st century on whose watch Russia did not invade another country," Sputnik quoted Trump as saying.
Notably, Putin on Monday recognized Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - as independent entities. Later, he ordered special military operations "to protect" the people in the Donbas region.
Several countries including the UK, the US, Canada, and the European Union have condemned Russia's military operations and imposed sanctions on Moscow.
( With inputs from ANI )
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