[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 82 (Thursday, May 27, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4510-S4511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           SANCTIONS ON IRAN

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, on May 25, Robert Kagan, a senior associate 
at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote a column in 
the Washington Post explaining that Russia's recent agreement to 
tighten sanctions on Iran is not as significant as the Obama 
administration has claimed.
  Dr. Kagan wrote that the Obama administration paid a high price to 
get Russia to agree to ``another hollow U.N. Security Council 
resolution'' and that the Russians ``sometimes used to say and do 
more'' during the Bush administration. It is unclear to me what the 
administration can point to as the fruits of the Russia reset, at least 
as far as the United States is concerned.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have Dr. Kagan's column 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record as follows:

                [From the Washington Post, May 25, 2010]

                      A Hollow `Reset' With Russia

                           (By Robert Kagan)

       It took months of hard negotiating, but finally the 
     administration got Russia to agree to a resolution tightening 
     sanctions on Iran. The United States had to drop tougher 
     measures it wanted to impose, of course, to win approval. 
     Nevertheless, senior Russian officials were making the kinds 
     of strong statements about Iran's nuclear program that they 
     had long refused to make. Iran ``must cease enrichment,'' 
     declared Russia's ambassador to the United Nations. One 
     senior European official told the New York Times, ``We 
     consider this a very important decision by the Russians.''
       Yes, it was quite a breakthrough--by the administration of 
     George W. Bush. In fact, this 2007 triumph came after 
     another, similar breakthrough in 2006, when months of 
     negotiations with Moscow had produced the first watered-down 
     resolution. And both were followed in 2008 by yet another 
     breakthrough, when the Bush administration got Moscow to 
     agree to a third resolution, another marginal tightening of 
     sanctions, after more negotiations and more diluting.
       Given that history, few accomplishments have been more 
     oversold than the Obama administration's ``success'' in 
     getting Russia to agree, for the fourth time in five years, 
     to another vacuous U.N. Security Council resolution. It is 
     being trumpeted as a triumph of the administration's 
     ``reset'' of the U.S.-Russian relationship, the main point of 
     which was to get the Russians on board regarding Iran. All 
     we've heard in recent months is how the Russians finally want 
     to work with us on Iran and genuinely see the Iranian bomb as 
     a threat--all because Obama has repaired relations with 
     Russia that were allegedly destroyed by Bush.
       Obama officials must assume that no one will bother to 
     check the record (as, so far, none of the journalists 
     covering the story has). The fact is, the Russians have not 
     said or done anything in the past few months that they didn't 
     do or say during the Bush years. In fact, they sometimes used 
     to say and do more. Here's Vladimir Putin in April 2005: ``We 
     categorically oppose any attempts by Iran to acquire nuclear 
     weapons. . . . Our Iranian partners must renounce setting up 
     the technology for the entire nuclear fuel cycle and should 
     not obstruct placing their nuclear programs under complete 
     international supervision.'' Here's one of Putin's top 
     national security advisers, Igor S. Ivanov, in March 2007: 
     ``The clock must be stopped; Iran must freeze uranium 
     enrichment.'' Indeed, the New York Times' Elaine Sciolino 
     reported that month that Moscow threatened to ``withhold 
     nuclear fuel for Iran's nearly completed Bushehr power plant 
     unless Iran suspends its uranium enrichment as demanded by 
     the United Nations Security Council''--which prompted the 
     Times' editorial page to give the Bush administration 
     ``credit if it helped Moscow to see where its larger 
     interests lie.'' Nine months later, of course, Russia 
     delivered the fuel.
       It remains to be seen whether this latest breakthrough has 
     greater meaning than the previous three or is just round four 
     of Charlie Brown and the football. The latest draft 
     resolution tightens sanctions in some areas around the 
     margins, but the administration was forced to cave to some 
     Russian and Chinese demands. The Post reported: ``The Obama 
     administration failed to win approval for key proposals it 
     had sought, including restrictions on Iran's lucrative oil 
     trade, a comprehensive ban on financial dealings with the 
     Guard Corps and a U.S.-backed proposal to halt new investment 
     in the Iranian energy sector.'' Far from the comprehensive 
     arms embargo Washington wanted, the draft resolution does not 
     even prohibit Moscow from completing the sale of its S-300 
     surface-to-air missile defense system to Tehran. A change to 
     the Federal Register on Friday showed that the administration 
     had lifted sanctions against four Russian entities involved 
     in illicit weapons trade with Iran and Syria since 1999, 
     suggesting last-minute deal sweeteners.
       What is bizarre is the administration's claim that Russian 
     behavior is somehow the result of Obama's ``reset'' 
     diplomacy. Russia

[[Page S4511]]

     has responded to the Obama administration in the same ways it 
     did to the Bush administration before the ``reset.'' Moscow 
     has been playing this game for years. It has sold the same 
     rug many times. The only thing that has changed is the price 
     the United States has been willing to pay.
       As anyone who ever shopped for a rug knows, the more you 
     pay for it, the more valuable it seems. The Obama 
     administration has paid a lot. In exchange for Russian 
     cooperation, President Obama has killed the Bush 
     administration's planned missile defense installations in 
     Poland and the Czech Republic. Obama has officially declared 
     that Russia's continued illegal military occupation of 
     Georgia is no ``obstacle'' to U.S.-Russian civilian nuclear 
     cooperation. The recent deal between Russia and Ukraine 
     granting Russia control of a Crimean naval base through 2042 
     was shrugged off by Obama officials, as have been Putin's 
     suggestions for merging Russian and Ukrainian industries in a 
     blatant bid to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty.
       So at least one effect of the administration's ``reset'' 
     has been to produce a wave of insecurity throughout Eastern 
     and Central Europe and the Baltics, where people are starting 
     to fear they can no longer count on the United States to 
     protect them from an expansive Russia. And for this the 
     administration has gotten what? Yet another hollow U.N. 
     Security Council resolution. Some observers suggest that 
     Iran's leaders are quaking in their boots, confronted by this 
     great unity of the international ``community.'' More likely, 
     they are laughing up their sleeves--along with the men in 
     Moscow.
       Robert Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment 
     for International Peace, writes a monthly column for The 
     Post.

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