WASHINGTON, Feb 23, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Former US president Donald Trump on
Tuesday hailed Russian leader Vladimir Putin's aggression against Ukraine as
"genius" but said the crisis would not have happened under the Republican
firebrand's administration.

   During an appearance on a rightwing radio program, the hosts asked Trump
about Putin recognizing two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as
independent.

   "I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, 'This
is genius,'" Trump responded.

   "Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine -- of Ukraine -- Putin
declares it as independent. Oh, that's wonderful."

   Russia is facing an international backlash after Putin ordered his forces
into Ukraine to secure the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk rebel republics.

   The move came with tens of thousands of Russian soldiers on Ukraine's
borders and amid warnings of an all-out invasion.

   Trump said Putin's tactics had been "smart" and argued, without
elaborating, that the United States could replicate them on its border with
Mexico.

   He followed up with a separate statement arguing that the Ukraine crisis
could have been averted altogether if it had been "properly handled" by
President Joe Biden, who defeated him in the 2020 election. "I know Vladimir
Putin very well, and he would have never done during the Trump administration
what he is doing now, no way!" the twice-impeached former president said.

   - Domestic firestorm -

   Trump, who had been largely silent on the escalating Russian threat to the
US ally before Tuesday, criticized Washington's "weak" response which he said
did not match Russia's actions.

   "Now it has begun, oil prices are going higher and higher, and Putin is
not only getting what he always wanted, but getting, because of the oil and
gas surge, richer and richer," Trump added.

   Former White House Russia advisor Fiona Hill told CNN Sunday that Trump's
foreign policy had emboldened Putin. The former president had been driven by
personal concerns rather than the national interest, she said.

   "There's no Team America for Trump. Not once did I see him do anything to
put America first. Not once. Not for a single second," said Hill, once one of
Trump's most senior aides. Ukraine found itself caught in a US domestic
political firestorm when then-president Trump asked its leader to launch a
spurious corruption probe into Biden's family ahead of the 2020 presidential
election.

   Accusations that Trump tried to block military aid to pressure President
Volodymyr Zelensky sparked the first of the Republican's two impeachments.