[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 129 (Wednesday, September 10, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H7397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 RUSSIA

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, Vladimir Putin lives in an alternate reality, 
one where the state is still all-powerful and can control reality for 
its citizens.
  In the 1930s, Stalin could make people disappear by sending them to 
the gulags and then erasing any mention of them in state archives. By 
controlling all information, he could pretend that black was white and 
up was down.
  Today, in Russia, Putin wants to pretend that the Ukrainian 
insurgency is homegrown, that Russian soldiers on the other side of the 
border are lost or just volunteers. He wants to pretend that Kiev is 
controlled by Nazis. His state-owned media dutifully reports these 
fictions as fact.
  The Soviet Union hasn't existed in more than 20 years. It collapsed 
out of weakness, and Russia remains weak and wholly dependent on energy 
exports today. Putin can pretend all he wants, but the reality is that 
he does not have the power of the secretary general or the czars. Let's 
not let him turn his dreams into reality by abandoning our friends and 
NATO allies. We must stand up for their freedom and support them more 
vigorously.

                          ____________________