'..in the long run, we need to deal with the causes of what produces this kind of extremism..'<blockquote>'Where we missed the opportunity was to continue to have an ongoing dialogue with them on a number of diplomatic and military issues. Our greatest faults are that we respond to crisis as opposed to taking steps to ultimately avoid crisis. So when crisis happens, that's usually the moment we turn to the Russians, to try to deal with the crisis, rather than kind of having an ongoing dialogue on the real issues that we have to deal with and be concerned about. We are responding to the Islamic State (IS) now. We are responding to other crises. It is really important to try to maintain that kind of continuing communication on issues. What happened in the Russian situation is that we were maintaining a dialogue with Medvedev. We made some progress with him, but when Putin came back in, it's almost as if a curtain of ice came down, and suddenly, we didn't have the kind of communication that we had in the past. And now we're paying a price for that.
..
..At some point, we are going to have to draw a line. Based on all kinds of historical lessons, it's better to draw that line earlier rather than later.
..
..in the long run, we need to deal with the causes of what produces this kind of extremism..'
- Panetta (
..Interview: 'You Have To Deal with Russians from Strength' February 14, 2015)</blockquote>
Context<Blockquote>
Global Magnitsky Act - '..it is essential that by April 2015 Ukraine should be engaged in a radical reform program that has a realistic chance of succeeding..' - Soros'..call[ing] for a new "red telephone" '</blockquote>