Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra issued a chilling assessment this morning: Russian President Vladimir Putin is “more relevant” in world events today than is U.S. President Barack Obama.

Hoekstra appeared on “The BIG Show” with Michael Patrick Shiels this morning to talk Putin’s speech yesterday at the United Nations.

“I do believe in many regards that President Putin is more relevant yesterday than what our own president was and that Russia right now is more relevant in foreign policy in terms of actually articulating a foreign policy than what the United States is,” Hoekstra told Shiels.

“I think the president is totally undecided about how is going to confront the various threats in the Middle East.

“At one point he called Yemen a success — that is now a failed state. At one point, he and his Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton) said, ‘We came, we saw, he died’ about their misadventure in Libya, which took Libya from being a rock of stability fighting terrorism in northern Africa into a failed state.

“He drew his red lines in Syria and then when President Bashear al-Assad crossed those lines and then America did nothing. And then finally, perhaps the biggest threat, ISIS now controls a significant geographic area in Syria and Iraq driving millions of people from their homes and the United States doesn’t have a coherent strategy,” Hoekstra said.

Hoekstra believes we’re now back to a Cold War all over again.

“When America pulls back, there’s vacuum and I think as we saw yesterday, there are countries that are moving into that vacuum because they want to have a larger international role — that includes Russia, China, and it also includes Iran.

“That vacuum that America has created is being filled,” Hoekstra said.