US President Barack Obama denounced Russia’s “brute force” used against its neighbor Ukraine and vowed that the United States “will never waver” in standing up for its NATO allies against aggression by Moscow.

In a speech in Brussels, Mr. Obama answered Moscow’s justifications for its annexation of Crimea point-for-point, dismissing them as “absurd” or unmerited.  He even dismissed the US war in Iraq – which he opposed as a senator – as any form of rationale of Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine.

“America and the world and Europe has an interest in a strong and responsible Russia, not a weak one,” Obama told an audience of leading figures here in the capital of the European Union.  “But that does not mean that Russia can run roughshod over its neighbors.  Just because Russia has a deep history with Ukraine does not mean it should be able to dictate Ukraine’s future.  No amount of propaganda can make right something the world knows is wrong.”

Obama denied this is the start of a new Cold War, noting that it was not a global struggle over ideology between blocs of nations, but rather a disagreement with an isolated, out-of-touch regional power inappropriately flexing its muscles.