Biden admits Obama ‘f***ed up’ with Putin and ‘didn’t take him ‘seriously’

Just ahead of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden made clear where the blame lay for Moscow’s aggression: His predecessor Barack Obama.

A new book by Bob Woodward describes Biden’s frustration that his then boss did not take tougher action when Russian forces invaded Crimea almost a decade earlier.

‘They f***ed up in 2014,’ Biden said to a friend, according to Woodward. ‘That’s why we are here. 

‘We f***ed it up. Barack never took Putin seriously.’

The book, published next week, offers an eye-popping look inside Biden’s blunt, often foul-mouthed relationships with foreign leaders and former presidents as he navigated a string of national security crises. 

Nowhere is that sharper than his fury at Obama for failing to check Putin when he first moved into Ukraine. 

‘We did nothing. We gave Putin a license to continue,’ Biden said, according to excerpts of the ‘War’ published by CNN. ‘Well, I’m revoking his f***ing license!’

Russian troops, in plain uniforms without insignia, moved into Crimea in February and March 2014 after the ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president.

It came after Obama had dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a mission to ‘reset’ relations with Moscow.

And in 2012, when his election opponent Sen. Mitt Romney described Russia as ‘our number-one geopolitical foe,’ Obama responded with mockery. 

‘The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years,’ he said.

After the invasion, Obama opposed sending weapons to Ukraine and instead issued relatively minor sanctions against Russian individuals and businesses. Instead, European nations emerged to lead resistance to Moscow’s invasion and annexation of the region.

Years later, after Putin had taken the next step of a full-scale assault on Ukraine, Obama defended his response.

Bob Woodward’s new book suggests President Joe Biden blamed his former boss President Barack Obama for not being firm enough with Russia and President Vladimir Putin

Putin (second from left) is seen here during a 2019 visit to Sevastopol in annexed Crimea

People attend a rally and a concert celebrating the 10th anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, at Red Square in Moscow on March 18, 2024

Woodward’s latest book is published next week by Simon and Schuster

‘We challenged Putin with the tools that we had at the time, given where Ukraine was,’ he told CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour.

Woodward suggests that Biden, who was picked by Obama in part for his foreign policy chops and claimed to be the last person in the room when major decisions were taken, saw the Russian leader differently.

‘That f***ing Putin,’ Biden reportedly said to advisers in the Oval Office not long after Russia’s 2022 invasion. ‘Putin is evil. We are dealing with the epitome of evil.’

Yet, European leaders have frequently expressed frustration with Biden’s reluctance to send Ukraine the weapons they want.

The book also reveals how Donald Trump kept in regular touch Putin after leaving office.

During the height of the pandemic in 2020, Trump also sent the famously hypochondriac Russian leader a supply of COVID  tests ‘for his personal use,’ Woodward reports. 

It came at a time of gestures of solidarity as the pandemic spread.

‘Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,’ Putin told Trump.