Hillary Clinton: EU Should Lead Response to Plane Downing

 Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it was probably pro-Russian insurgents who shot down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over Ukraine and put the onus on Europe to respond if Russia was involved.

"Europeans have to be the ones to take the lead on this" if Russia is found to be culpable, Clinton said in an interview with Charlie Rose airing Thursday night on PBS and also on Bloomberg Television. "There should be outrage in European capitals."

Clinton, who served as President Barack Obama's first secretary of state and is considering a 2016 presidential run, said "there does seem to be some growing awareness that it probably had to be Russian insurgents."

In the interview, designed to promote her memoir, Clinton told Rose that Europeans should join the U.S. in imposing tougher sanctions on Russia, look beyond Russian natural gas provider OAO Gazprom for new sources of energy and provide support for the Ukrainian government.

She said that sanctions alone may not be enough to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggressive moves toward Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March and has been accused of fomenting instability in eastern Ukraine, a claim that Putin's government has denied.

"Putin is pushing the envelope as far as he thinks he can," Clinton said. "The only language he understands is one that is very tough, very patient, very clear. The sanctions are an important piece of that and there is evidence that they are having an effect, but sanctions alone will not necessarily restrain him or change his calculus."