Ukraine was historically a part of Russia for quite some period of time, and we all know there was this conversation with Victoria Nuland about planning the coup and who was going to take over ... Let's just stop pretending there are good guys here and bad guys here. These are complicated situations. Yeah, Russia is doing lots of human rights abuse, but you know what? So are we." When asked by Politico if she thought that Putin was an "incipient despot", Stein answered, "To some extent, yes, but there could be a whole lot worse ... when we needlessly provoke him and endanger him and surround him with war games--you know, this is sort of the Cuban Missile Crisis on steroids, what we are doing to Russia right now, and I don't think this is a good idea." Stein has falsely asserted that the United States "helped foment" a "coup in Ukraine" (known in Ukraine as the Revolution of Dignity), maintaining that Ukraine should be neutral and that the United States should not arm it. She was critical of the Ukrainian government formed after the Revolution of Dignity, falsely claiming that "ultra-nationalists and ex-Nazis came to power." She met with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in December 2015 at a banquet to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Russian state-run television propaganda network RT. While in Russia, Stein criticized U.S. foreign policy (saying that the U.S. had a "policy of domination" instead of "international law, human rights and diplomacy") and human rights in the U.S. Stein told CNN that she attended the conference to advocate for a ceasefire in the Middle East and to tell Russia to stop its military incursion in Syria. She has said that her approach to the Syrian Civil War would be to put in place a weapons embargo, freeze funds going to ISIL and other terrorist groups, and push for a peace process leading to a ceasefire. Stein is also in favor of taking "far more" than the 10,000 Syrian refugees Obama pledged to take in. Stein has been sharply critical of the use of drones, calling them a human rights violation and an "illegal assassination program" saying that they are "off target nine times out of ten." She has also been critical of America's "expanding wars" and accused the United States of currently "bombing seven countries," which Politifact rated as a true statement.