Kerry: Romney 'breathtakingly off target' on Russia

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) blasted Mitt Romney as "naive" and "inappropriately threatening" to Russia after the presumptive Republican nominee called the country a "foe" of the United States.

The comments were made in response to Romney's assertion that President Obama had shown "breathtaking weakness" toward Moscow after a highly publicized open-mic gaffe in March. The the president was caught telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more political flexibility to negotiate a missile treaty after the November elections, a statement widely pounced on by Republicans.

“I think that candidate Romney has been breathtakingly off target, and naive and in fact wrong in his judgment about Russia when he said Russia is our number one foe. I cannot think of any statement that frankly is more inappropriately threatening and simply wrong by any calculus than that," Kerry told Bloomberg.

The Massachusetts lawmaker went on to say it was "an enormous mistake to push Russia away and to make it the enemy that it is not today."

"I think there are ways for us to actually be much more cooperative with Russia on a number of issues," Kerry said.

Romney was similarly criticized by former Secretary of State Colin Powell earlier this week during an interview with CNN.

"Foe means enemy," Powell said. "Will we have differences of opinion with the Russians? Yes. Will they get mad at us from time to time, and we get mad at them? That's part of the normal diplomatic relations."

Powell also admonished Romney for listening to advisers who were "quite far to the right," saying he ought to give his advice "a second thought."

Later in the interview, Kerry said he didn't believe the United States should cut aid to Pakistan after the country imposed a 33-year sentence on a doctor who aided the United States in its hunt for Osama bin Laden.

“I think it would be a mistake right now to cut aid. Again I think you need to leave the diplomatic space here to continue discussions. I had a long talk with President [Asif Ali] Zardari this week when he was in Chicago. My hope is that there is a way forward here over the course of the next weeks to be able to get this relationship into a better place. There is no question that it is a very fragile relationship right now. The sentence obviously is egregious," Kerry said.

Kerry also handicapped the presidential race, saying the election would provide "an extraordinarily clear choice."

"Romney wants to reduce even more the available revenue to deal with a crisis for our country economically. I can't think of anything more irresponsible than that. And so I think the choices between the President who inherited the worst economic situation since the Great Depression, who has made very tough decisions, you look at General Motors today, soaring," Kerry said.

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