Russian Foreign Policy

Obama in 2014 following the annexation of Crimea....not a million miles from Trump's view.

Barack Obama: no cold war over Crimea

US president insists military solution not an option, saying pressure and diplomacy are the way forward in Crimea dispute
www.theguardian.com
It was clear Obama had no intention of being drawn into rash action or any kind of dangerous confrontation with Putin over Ukraine. "This is not another cold war that we're entering into. The United States and Nato do not seek any conflict with Russia," Obama said. "Now is not the time for bluster … There are no easy answers, no military solution."

Obama also essentially rubber-stamped the Russians taking over of Crimea stating that they had "legitimate concerns" there, while also cautioning against too many sanctions on Russia in case it would impact US interests.


“We’re continually hopeful Russia walks through the door of diplomacy and works with all of us to try to resolve this issue in a peaceful way,” he said. Obama has said Russia has legitimate concerns in Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority and is home to a vital Russian naval base.
 
It is a million miles from Trump's view. Trump doesn't care if all of Ukraine falls to Russia and becomes another Belarus, and a launchpad for further Russian aggression and threatening stance against other European and EU countries. All he cares about is a purported minerals deal no doubt with lots of opportunities for grift for him or his cronies.
 
Nah...Obama has always seen Ukraine as more Russian than European. He didn't really care all that much about it...

Obama Sees Ukraine as Putin's Client State

Russia’s invasion of Crimea in early 2014, and its decision to use force to buttress the rule of its client Bashar al-Assad, have been cited by Obama’s critics as proof that the post-red-line world no longer fears America. So when I talked with the president in the Oval Office in late January, I...
www.atlanticcouncil.org

Obama’s theory here is simple: Ukraine is a core Russian interest but not an American one, so Russia will always be able to maintain escalatory dominance there.
Click to expand...
“The fact is that Ukraine, which is a non-nato country, is going to be vulnerable to military domination by Russia no matter what we do,” he said.
Click to expand...
 
The content of that article doesn't match the headline. That is not a statement of Obama's view, but seems to be a framing of how Putin approached it e.g.
Putin acted in Ukraine in response to a client state that was about to slip out of his grasp. And he improvised in a way to hang on to his control there.

That's not Obama saying he sees Ukraine as a client state.
And contradicted by this:

“Part of what happened was, both myself and also [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, who I give enormous credit for, had to pull in a lot of other Europeans kicking and screaming to impose the sanctions that we did and to prevent Putin from continuing through the Donbass and through the rest of Ukraine,” he added.
Obama said that the sense of identity and ability to push back against Russia developed in Ukraine after the 2014 annexation, and that identity and ability is what led to the fierce resistance now.
“We challenged Putin with the tools that we had at the time, given where Ukraine was,” he said.

 
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