WASHINGTON — Republicans criticized President Obama Sunday as too cautious about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions in Ukraine. They insisted that Obama get tougher, and fast.

“I think Putin is playing chess, and I think we’re playing marbles,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Our policy towards Russia under this administration deserves a heavy amount of criticism,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Putin’s on the wrong side of history. He’s on the wrong side of the law. Make him pay a price,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Beyond the rhetoric, many of the specific ideas mentioned by Republicans were also embraced by some Democrats.

Among them: Admit Georgia to NATO, and create a “democratic noose,” as Graham put it, around Russia. Impose economic sanctions. Restart missile defense systems in the Czech Republic. Suspend Russia from the Group of 8.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that the U.S. is weighing possible economic sanctions or other punishments if Putin doesn’t relent.

The hard line against Putin reflects the Republican effort to regain their political advantage on national security.

From roughly the late 1960s, when most Democrats soured on the Vietnam War, until support for the Iraq war began to ebb about a decade ago, Republicans were seen as the party more inclined to use or threaten military force.

Six Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including Rubio, joined six Democrats Friday in writing a letter to Obama pledging bipartisan cooperation in developing policy, and outlined specific steps.

“We are prepared to work with your Administration to reinforce your efforts by authorizing U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine and increasing assistance to facilitate a peaceful transition of power,” the senators wrote. “We also believe that the U.S. should make use of the tools at its disposal,” the letter said, including some “targeted sanctions.”

Rubio had a tougher tone on Sunday. He offered a sweeping view of Russia., saying “they’re increasingly behaving like an enemy of international peace and international norms.”

Other Republicans pounced on Obama.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Obama’s 2008 Republican opponent, last month told a Phoenix radio station Obama was “the most naive president in history.”