Jeb Bush calls Putin a ‘bully’

Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) said on Wednesday that the U.S. and its allies should stand firm against Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him a “bully.”

“Ultimately, I think to deal with Putin you need to deal from strength — he’s a bully and … you enable bad behavior when you’re nuanced with a guy like that,” Bush told reporters in Berlin, according to Reuters.

{mosads}“Just being clear — I’m not talking about being bellicose — but saying, ‘Here are the consequences of your actions,’ that would deter the kind of bad outcome we don’t want to see,” the likely 2016 presidential contender added.

Bush argued on Wednesday that the U.S. should take a more active role in protecting Eastern Europe’s sovereignty from Russian machinations.

“There are things that we could do, given the scale of our military, to send a strong signal that we’re on the side of Poland and the Baltics and the countries that truly feel threatened by the little green men and this new cyberwarfare and these other tactics that Russia now is using,” he said, citing reports of unmarked Russian soldiers who helped separatist forces in Ukraine.

Bush added that President Obama’s response to Putin’s menacing of Ukraine had thus far proven “far less meaningful” than his Russian counterpart’s maneuvers.

“If I was president of the United States, I’d clearly take the advice of the commanders on the ground but from the outside, without having any kind of classified information, it appears that we could have a more robust response,” he said.

Bush’s remarks come amid a five-day trek through Europe begun on Tuesday to tout his foreign policy credentials. The former governor plans on visiting Germany, Poland and Estonia.

He is expected to formally announce his White House bid in on June 15 in Miami.