RNC to Clinton: How’s the Russia reset going?

The Republican National Committee wants to know how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thinks the “reset” with Russia has fared.

The GOP campaign arm sent a press release Thursday criticizing the Obama administration’s foreign policy and asserting that, in light of the crisis in Ukraine, that reset is “haunting Clinton’s potential 2016 campaign.”

{mosads}“Five years ago today, Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration pledged to ‘press the reset button’ with Russia — how’s that going?” the RNC asked, linking to a series of past and present news articles about the effort.

The Obama administration’s proclaimed reset in 2009 with Russia has reemerged after Russian troops took over the Crimean peninsula, claiming it is protecting ethnic-Russians in the region.

The RNC said Clinton and “the entire Obama administration dismissed concerns over Russia just two years ago.”

The RNC also highlighted Clinton’s 2009 gaff when she presented a mock “reset” button to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that used the wrong Russian translation of the word.

A number of GOP foreign policy hawks have said the Obama administration’s “weak” leadership in the world has partly encouraged Russia’s actions.

Clinton has expressed support for the administration’s diplomatic effort in recent days and has described Putin as a “tough guy with a pretty thin skin.”

On Wednesday, Clinton said the administration used the phrase “reset” to say the United States had not been happy about past relations with and actions by Russia, “but we want to get other things done. And we did,” she said.

In 2009, as head of the State Department, Clinton led an effort to start fresh relations with the country and then-President Dmitry Medvedev. She promoted a pragmatic approach to foreign policy rather than refusing to do business with leaders with whom the United States does not agree.

“I was very clear-eyed about what I thought we could get done,” she said.

She listed U.S. priorities at the time, including an arms agreement, a bid to get Russia into the World Trade Organization and an effort to create a supply line through Russia in order to get resources to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.