[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 6 (Monday, January 10, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S110]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Russia

  Madam President, on my last topic, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin 
once famously called the collapse of the Soviet Union ``the greatest 
geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'' That ought to tell you very 
much. He regrets the collapse of the evil empire that killed, that 
tortured, and that repressed millions of Russians, and he is in the 
process of trying to reconstitute that empire by threatening Russia's 
neighbors, regardless of the wishes of the people he seeks to rule 
over.
  Putin is on the precipice of greatly escalating his war on Ukraine, 
upset that Ukrainians, as is their right, increasingly seek to leave 
the Soviet past behind them and reclaim their European heritage. 
Ukraine wants to renew historic ties with their western neighbor while 
building democracy and the rule of law.
  Now, we saw over the week, particularly this weekend, Putin sending 
troops into Kazakhstan at the invitation of that country's allied 
dictator to repress an unexpected popular uprising.
  All this empire building rests on convincing the Russian people that 
despite their misery and his misrule, Putin is restoring Russia's past 
glory, just like they could have a good economic future based on that 
past glory.
  Now, this work of Putin requires a war on history. Putin recently 
gave a speech absurdly claiming Ukraine is not a real country, based on 
ignoring--or, rather, Russia's co-opting--the much older history of 
civilization in Ukraine.
  He has also rehabilitated the memory of the sadistic mass murderer 
Joseph Stalin. There is a book about how Putin's Russia views the 
Stalinist past. Its title says it all. The title of the book is ``It 
Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway.'' Now they have 
taken action in recent weeks to make sure that history of Russia's 
past, particularly the abuse of its population, never is known. And I 
will cover that in just a minute.
  Stalin's horrific crimes against the Russian people are a big 
obstacle to Putin's narrative about the Soviet Union, as part of some 
sort of a proud Russian imperial tradition. So it comes as no surprise 
that Putin's regime has forced the closure of a respected Russian human 
rights organization dedicated to the truth--the truth--about the 
victims of Soviet communism.
  The independent human rights organization known as Memorial was 
cofounded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov in the waning 
days of the Soviet Union. Sakharov was a brave dissident who risked 
everything to call attention to the evils of the Soviet system. As some 
of my colleagues may recall, I led the effort in this U.S. Senate to 
name the street in front of the old Soviet Embassy in his Honor--
Sakharov Plaza.
  When the Soviet Union collapsed, Sakharov embodied the hope of a 
brighter, more democratic future for all of Russia, built on 
understanding and reckoning with its past.
  The forced closure of Memorial after decades of noble work to bring 
awareness and to bring healing around the victims of Soviet communism 
is emblematic of the state of Putin's Russia, but not the state of the 
Russian people. Moreover, the next day, he moved even further in this 
direction of trying to rewrite history or stop the truth from coming 
out. Putin shut down the separate but related Memorial Human Rights 
Center, which focused on political prisoners this very day who are 
being abused under Putin's regime. This is a major setback for what is 
left of Russia's civil society that started to emerge out of the 
wreckage of communism.
  A robust civil society will be essential if Russia is ever to become 
a free, prosperous modern nation. Today, only President Putin stands in 
the way of that accomplishment.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Duckworth). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.