[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 6 (Monday, January 10, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S107-S108]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Ukraine

  Madam President, nearly 32 years ago, Lithuania, a tiny nation on the 
Baltic Sea, dared to reclaim its freedom from the Soviet Union. At that 
time, the Soviet Union was one of the world's superpowers. The reaction 
from Moscow took 11 months, and it was brutal.
  On January 11, 1991, 31 years ago this week, Soviet tanks rolled in 
to crush Lithuanian freedom. It would become known as Lithuania's 
Bloody Sunday. In the capital city of Vilnius, crowds

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gathered in TV Tower and Parliament Square to protest and resist the 
Russians and to defend their new independent national legislature.
  I was lucky. I was there to see the efforts by the people of 
Lithuania of this tiny nation to protect what they were starting with a 
new Parliament and free elections for the first time in almost 50 
years.
  Thirteen martyrs died in the Soviet Union's brutal attempt to crush 
the restoration of Lithuanian independence. But to the astonishment of 
the entire world, after 2 days of bloodshed and killing, the Soviet 
tanks turned around and left. Against all odds, that tiny nation of 
Lithuania threw off 50 years of Soviet tyranny and occupation. They 
soon were joined by Latvia and Estonia, where similar courage was 
shown, and then by other Eastern European nations held captive by the 
Soviet bloc.
  Today, I am proud to say Lithuania remains a free and independent 
democracy. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, at the time he ordered 
the tanks to withdraw from Lithuania, 31 years ago, came to realize 
that you can brutalize a people who are determined to be free, but you 
can't defeat them. Ultimately, freedom will prevail.
  It is a tragedy that Russian President Putin--Vladimir Putin--cannot 
or will not learn that lesson of history. Instead, today, he is 
intimidating Ukraine with the same discredited tactics that failed in 
the Baltics three decades ago.
  I was fortunate to be invited on a trip in the year 2014 with the 
late Senator John McCain of Arizona. He never missed visiting the hot 
spots of the world, and we went to Kiev in Ukraine, and we walked down 
to the Maidan Square, which had been the place where the people of 
Ukraine--the Ukrainians--stepped forward to demand their freedom.
  Senator McCain invited me to be part of a delegation during an 
extraordinary moment when the Ukrainian people were preparing to risk 
their lives for freedom. We were joined on the trip to Kiev by Senators 
Barrasso, Johnson, Murphy, and others. And we walked solemnly through 
the makeshift shrines set up in the Maidan memorializing those who lost 
their lives in Ukraine's peaceful protest for a better future.
  They stopped us at one point and pointed to a place and said: One of 
the protesters was standing here when the government sniper killed him. 
That is why there are flowers and candles at that site.
  We were planning to travel to the eastern part of the country as 
well, but we were too late. Russians and Vladimir Putin had already 
invaded with their little green men and had seized the territory of 
Crimea. Yet in the ensuing years, despite Russia's military invasion 
and occupation of Eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian people have thrived 
and built on their democratic aspirations.
  As with any democracy, there are always areas for improvement, but 
the Ukrainian people have clearly decided their future is with the 
community of democracies and not with Moscow. And yet that basic human 
desire to be free and democratically choose one's leaders is apparently 
too much for Russian leader Vladimir Putin who is now threatening a 
further massive military invasion of Ukraine.
  He has amassed some 100,000 troops on their border, preparing for 
that invasion. It is not enough that Putin denies the Russian people 
their basic freedom; he is determined to eradicate similar aspirations 
on Russia's border to protect his undemocratic regime.
  President Biden and Members of both parties in this Chamber have been 
swift to condemn Putin's threatened further invasion of Ukraine. 
President Biden has made it clear that any such move by Russia would be 
met with rapid and severe economic sanctions. The chair of the Senate 
Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, has drafted 
legislation that would impose historic sanctions if Russia further 
invades Ukraine. The bill's approach is sweeping and clear, and I 
support it. I agree with our President and the chairman of the Foreign 
Relations Committee. This is the right message for us to send from the 
President and the U.S. Senate to Vladimir Putin.
  Chairman Menendez's solution also provides assistance to the Baltic 
States in standing up to both Putin and China--a timely measure I want 
to thank my colleague for including in this bill.
  It is a bill we should actually be debating on the Senate floor. 
Instead, we will be forced to vote this week or soon on a different and 
weaker response to the crisis on the Ukraine's border.
  The junior Senator from Texas is the author of this weaker approach. 
He has managed to force a vote on it by holding hostage dozens of 
President Biden's nominations. His approach includes a provision to 
remove the waiver for sanctions against a new gas pipeline between 
Russia and Germany.
  Let me be clear. This Nord Stream 2 Pipeline is a proposal I have 
been critical of for a long time. I have urged our European allies to 
diversify their natural gas supply away from Russia. President Biden's 
position on Nord Stream 2 is the same--that the pipeline could 
effectively undermine European security by increasing reliance on 
Moscow.
  But the truth is, construction on that pipeline did not begin in the 
last year; it started under President Trump. I don't think you will be 
hearing that present in the speeches of the junior Senator from Texas. 
Despite congressional sanctions and restrictions, by the time Biden 
entered office, that pipeline was nearly 95 percent complete. Where was 
the Republican outrage when the lion's share of the pipeline was built 
under the Trump administration? Were dozens of critical nominations 
brazenly and dangerously held then? No.
  Given the pipeline's near completion this spring, President Biden 
waived some but not all sanctions on Nord Stream 2 in an effort to mend 
relations with Germany and its new government. They are one of our 
closest allies and partners. We need to continue such close cooperation 
with our European partners so long as they stand with us to effectively 
deter further Russian provocation.
  President Biden announced an agreement with Germany that involves 
securing Ukraine and Europe's energy sector, as well as imposing 
sanctions on Russia. This is important. The President still has the 
authority to impose additional sanctions on Nord Stream 2. In fact, 
just this November, the administration sanctioned a Russian-linked ship 
in connection with it.
  The bill offered by my colleague from Texas does not provide any new 
authority to the President; it only takes away his waiver authority to 
force sanctions, setting a dangerous precedent and jeopardizing the 
administration's flexibility to respond to escalation by the Russians.
  This Cruz bill will hardly deter the potential Russian invasion of 
Ukraine and only serve to complicate the efforts to repair relations 
with our European ally Germany, which has critical energy needs.
  I believe we should leave the flexibility of how and when to further 
sanction this pipeline to the President as part of a larger approach in 
dealing with Putin. For this reason, I urge my colleagues to support 
the wiser approach by the senior Senator from New Jersey to send a 
serious, credible response to Russia if it further invades Ukraine.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.