HOUSE INTEL CHIEF: 'Putin Is Playing Chess, And We're Playing Marbles'

NBC

Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, criticized the U.S.'s response to Russian aggression in the Crimea region of Ukraine, suggesting that President Barack Obama was being outsmarted by Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

"Putin is playing chess, and I think we are playing marbles - and I don't think it's even close," Rogers said on "Fox News Sunday."

"They've been running circles around us."

Rogers suggested that Russia has been so aggressive in the Crimea region because they believe that there is "nothing that can stop them." He said he believes that Putin would like to make Crimea part of the Russian Federation - but that it wouldn't stop there.

"I believe it's the naïve position of the National Security Council and the president's advisers that, if we just keep giving things to Russia, they'll wake up and say, 'the United States is not that bad,'" Rogers said. "That is completely missing the motivations of why Russia does what Russia does."

Rogers said there were few good options for dealing with Russia's military intervention in Crimea. Rogers said he would cancel U.S. participation in the upcoming G-8 summit in Sochi, Russia, something the White House said Saturday it was prepared to do if Russia did not withdraw its troops from Ukraine. Rogers also said Obama should make it clear that the U.S. will support Ukraine financially.