[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 22 (Thursday, February 3, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S510-S512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Russia

  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, there is a gathering storm in Europe. I rise 
today to discuss the brewing crisis posed by Russia's aggression and, 
tragically, how the reckless actions of President Biden have enabled 
it.
  This morning, all 100 Senators participated in a classified briefing, 
where we heard from the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State 
and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We heard about the 
magnitude of the threat from Russia.
  We stand here today with Europe facing the greatest peril it has 
faced since 1945. These are ominous and chilling times, and we did not 
arrive here by accident. Right now, 150,000 Russian troops are directly 
on the border of Ukraine, poised to invade, with more troops and more 
tanks arriving each and every day. It was also reported this week that 
Russia has sent additional blood supplies to its military equipment on 
the Ukraine border, another ominous signal that Russia plans to invade.
  Ukraine, and indeed the region and the world, find ourselves in this 
crisis because of President Biden's weakness, because of his 
appeasement, because of his surrender to Putin over the last year. And 
now, instead of rising to meet this moment with strength and resolve, 
President Biden continues to shrink from it with more weakness than 
appeasement.
  One question that was raised in the briefing this morning is, Why 
didn't this happen in 2017? Why didn't it happen in 2018? Why didn't it 
happen in 2019? Why didn't it happen in 2020? What changed?
  I will suggest what changed. What changed is the occupant of the Oval 
Office, who has demonstrated weakness and appeasement virtually from 
the moment he rested his hand upon the Bible. It is a pattern.
  As a result of President Biden's weakness and appeasement, this 
administration gave Afghanistan to the Taliban and 13 American 
servicemembers were tragically murdered.
  As a result of President Biden's weakness and appeasement, this 
administration is ramping up to give a nuclear arsenal to the Ayatollah 
in Iran. The very same Ayatollah who chants ``Death to Israel'' and 
``Death to America,'' the Biden administration is preparing to 
facilitate that Ayatollah having the weapons of mass murder to carry 
out those pledges.
  As a result of President Biden's weakness and appeasement, the Biden 
administration is in the process of ceding Taiwan to Xi. President 
Biden has even banned any Taiwanese official from displaying a 
Taiwanese military uniform or displaying a Taiwanese flag on U.S. 
Government property. Why? Because it offends the communist Government 
in China.
  And, again, right now, today, as a result of President Biden's 
weakness and appeasement, the Biden administration is in the process of 
abandoning Ukraine to Vladimir Putin.
  Putin didn't just wake up one day and decide to invade Ukraine. He 
has wanted to invade Ukraine for years. And he did so in 2014, but he 
stopped short of a full invasion then because he couldn't endanger 
Ukraine's energy infrastructure, which Putin needs to get Russian 
natural gas to Europe. So Russia formed a consortium to build Nord 
Stream 2, a pipeline stretching directly from Russia to Germany under 
the sea so that Russian gas could circumvent Ukraine altogether.
  We have long known about the dangers Nord Stream 2 poses. That is 
why, in the last few years, Democrats and Republicans here in the 
Senate have come together repeatedly and taken bipartisan actions, 
passing sanctions on Nord Stream 2 with overwhelming majorities.
  I led that effort, drafting the Cruz-Shaheen sanctions. They were 
supported by every Democrat in this Chamber. They passed 
overwhelmingly, and they worked. They succeeded. They stopped the 
pipeline literally the day they were signed into law.
  The story of how that happened is well known to every Senator in this 
Chamber, as is the story of how the new President--President Biden--
inexplicably and catastrophically decided to squander that hard-fought 
geopolitical victory and turn a victory for America into a loss for 
America and our allies.
  Many a Democratic Senator standing on this Senate floor has quietly 
expressed frustration, confusion, anger why the Biden administration 
would surrender to Russia and give away the victory we had won.
  It is not only the decision to surrender on Nord Stream 2 and give

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Putin the pipeline that enables him to invade Ukraine that led to this 
day. Also, for the past year, President Biden has repeatedly 
systematically undermined our Ukrainian allies in the face of Russian 
aggression to placate Putin.
  And it is worth noting, Biden does this for the same reason he 
undermines Taiwan. He undermines Taiwan to placate the Chinese 
communists. He undermines Ukraine to placate Putin. To placate Putin, 
the Biden administration has repeatedly withheld military aid packages 
to Ukraine. Other times, he has withheld diplomatic support to pressure 
our Ukrainian allies into supporting his misguided Nord Stream 2 
surrender to Putin. Biden's actions for the past year have emboldened 
Putin, who acted on that weakness and has put Europe on the brink of 
war.
  So what can we do right now today to promote peace and stop an 
invasion?
  Well, our Ukrainian allies have told us again and again what we can 
do and what we should do. All we have to do in the Senate is listen to 
our friends in Ukraine who are on the frontline: No. 1, sanction Nord 
Stream 2 immediately, right now, today; No. 2, give the Ukrainians 
weapons so that they can defend themselves.
  Just last week, the chairman of Ukraine's Parliament wrote a letter 
to the Senate about exactly this. If you have not read the letter from 
the Ukrainian Parliament, I commend it to you. It is an extraordinary 
letter from a nation on the brink of annihilation at the hands of 
Russian aggression. I am going to read parts of that letter right now 
because it is worth quoting extensively.
  The chairman of Ukraine's Parliament writes:

       Nord Stream 2 is a source of multidimensional security, 
     political and economic threats to Ukraine and Europe as a 
     whole. It is not an exaggeration that Nord Stream 2 is no 
     less an existential threat to Ukraine's security and 
     democracy than the Russian troops on our border. This 
     pipeline must be stopped and the only way to prevent the 
     completion is to use all the tools available to do that.

  The letter continues:

       So far, the decision to waive sanctions against Nord Stream 
     2 in May 2021--

  That was a decision by President Biden--

     has emboldened Russia and caused Moscow to conclude that the 
     United States may accommodate its hostile intentions.

  The letter continues:

       After a clear majority of the U.S. Senate voted 55-44 in 
     favor of imposing immediate sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, on 
     January 13, 2022, it is essential that Congress include 
     immediate sanctions against Nord Stream 2 AG in any new 
     legislation to undercut options for Russia's aggressive 
     actions on Ukraine.

  The letter goes on, asking for a ``clear trigger for the instant and 
unqualified imposition of any sanctions that are not imposed 
immediately upon enactment of the legislation,'' arguing that ``while 
some sanctions--like sanctions against Nord Stream 2--should be imposed 
immediately to demonstrate to Moscow that the United States is, indeed, 
serious about serious measures, including removing Russia from SWIFT, 
the trigger of these future sanctions must be clear in order to be 
effective.''
  The letter continues:

       A ``significant escalation in hostilities,'' whose ``aim or 
     effect of undermining, overthrowing, or dismantling the 
     Government of Ukraine, occupying the territory of Ukraine, or 
     interfering with the sovereignty or territorial integrity of 
     Ukraine'' is too high of a threshold to deter Russian 
     aggression or affect the Kremlin's cost-benefit calculus.

  The Ukrainians are crystal clear in this letter. The sanctions on 
Nord Stream 2 that Biden waived last year, in the words of the 
Ukrainians, ``emboldened Russia'' and allowed Putin to think ``the 
United States may accommodate its hostile intentions.'' In other words, 
because of Biden's weakness and appeasement on Nord Stream 2, Putin 
thinks there are no serious consequences to invading Ukraine.
  So the Ukrainians are asking--they are begging of the U.S. Senate--
for immediate sanctions on Nord Stream 2. Do not abandon them. They cry 
at their hour of need.
  And they also state in the letter that ``expedited and higher-impact 
security assistance, including air defense, anti-ship, and anti-armor 
capabilities'' is what they need.
  That is what the Ukrainians have asked for, but President Biden and 
most of the Senate Democrats aren't doing what our Ukrainian allies 
have called for. Instead, they are looking to pile appeasement on top 
of appeasement, and they are doing it in secret. The Biden 
administration has offered Putin sweeping concessions on NATO when it 
comes to troops, when it comes to missiles, when it comes to military 
exercises. They transmitted this appeasement to Putin in secret and 
refused to let Americans see the details.
  I have seen the details, and I can tell you, they are deeply 
worrying. The reason the public hasn't seen them is the administration 
has placed them in a secure SCIF. They are not classified, mind you. 
They are merely ``confidential,'' which is Washington speak for 
politically embarrassing, and the administration doesn't want to defend 
the substance of it.
  That is why I am introducing legislation called the PARTNER Act, 
which would prevent President Biden from endangering our longtime 
allies and frontline countries in NATO by prohibiting him from removing 
American troops from the countries that border Russia--meaning Estonia, 
Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland--longtime allies. My 
legislation will prevent President Biden from offering yet more 
appeasement to Russia, from offering for America to abandon Eastern 
Europe to Russia, and from allowing President Biden to fatally 
undermine NATO.

  I also want to address the fact that some think we should stand down 
and not resist Russian aggression because they say Biden will send 
American troops into Ukraine and start a shooting war with Russia if 
Putin invades. I want to be clear and unequivocal: We should not have 
American soldiers in Ukraine. Under no circumstances should we send our 
sons and daughters to die to defend Ukraine from Russia. If the Biden 
administration proposes that because their foreign policy is collapsing 
around that, I will vigorously oppose such a move and the vast majority 
of Americans do, as well.
  But, critically, the Ukrainians aren't asking for that. Ukraine is 
not asking for a single American soldier. Ukraine is saying, Do two 
things: Sanction Nord Stream 2, the pipeline that enables the Russian 
aggression; and provide them with the military weapons so that they, 
the Ukrainians, can fight to defend their own Nation from the invading 
Russian Army.
  So Americans are asking: Why should we care what happens to Ukraine 
or what happens to NATO countries that border Russia?
  Let me be clear. There are some who justify American foreign policy 
and say we have an amorphous obligation to protect democracies; we have 
an obligation to protect international norms.
  I think all of that is bunk. We have an obligation to protect the 
national security of the United States of America. The Commander in 
Chief's obligation is to keep Americans safe.
  What does that mean in this context?
  Well, I want to make four points. No. 1, what Putin is trying to do 
is reassemble the USSR. If he succeeds in doing so, it would be 
catastrophic for global stability and American security. Putin and 
Russia are an enemy of America. When the Soviet Union was bigger, 
stronger, mightier, and with a bigger military, the lives of Americans 
and the lives of our allies were in far greater jeopardy. It is 
overwhelmingly in America's interest to prevent Putin from reassembling 
the Soviet Union because we do not wish for our enemies to become 
stronger and use that strength against us.
  No. 2, Putin is trying to seize control of energy. If he is 
successful, it will be felt by Americans filling up their cars with gas 
or trying to heat their homes in the winter. We have already seen what 
Putin has done with Nord Stream 2, and he is not going to stop there.
  No. 3, we have a formal obligation--a commitment the United States 
made--to help the Ukrainians defend themselves. Why is that? Well, 
after Ukraine successfully declared independence from the USSR in 1991, 
the United States signed an agreement, an agreement called the Budapest 
Memorandum on Security Assurances. With the Budapest Memorandum, under 
the terms of it, Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons. Ukraine 
had the third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons on the face of the 
planet. America

[[Page S512]]

agreed, quite reasonably, that the world would be safer if Ukraine did 
not have nukes, and the brandnew Ukrainian Government agreed and gave 
up their nuclear weapons, making America safer and the world safer.
  But the Ukrainian Government did not do so for nothing. It did so in 
exchange for explicit assurances that the United States would protect 
Ukraine's territorial integrity. Let me reiterate that. The United 
States made a formal commitment to the Ukrainians that if they gave up 
their nuclear weapons, we would help them protect themselves. The 
Ukrainians are asking us to honor our commitment in the form--and they 
are very specific about what they are asking--in the form of immediate 
sanctions on Nord Stream 2 and weapons so they can defend themselves.
  We need to send them that lethal aid, the kind of firepower the 
Ukrainians need to defend themselves, not the blankets and teddy bears 
and meals that the Obama administration sent the last time Russia 
invaded Ukraine.
  No. 4, we have treaty obligations to NATO countries on the frontlines 
of Putin's aggression. Putin wants NATO to withdraw foreign forces, 
including American forces from the countries that border Russia--from 
Bulgaria, from Poland, from Romania, from Estonia, from Latvia, from 
Lithuania. But to withdraw American forces from NATO would be seen as--
in fact, it would be--an abdication of our commitment to NATO. It would 
either shatter the NATO alliance, the most successful alliance in 
modern history, or it would put into motion dynamics that would 
ultimately shatter NATO, which is why, as I mentioned, I am introducing 
the PARTNER Act, to prevent the Biden administration--their weakness 
and appeasement--from destroying NATO and undermining American 
security.
  On every one of these four points, Biden has demonstrated weakness 
and appeasement to Putin. And I would note that you might ask: Why 
should America honor our commitments? Why should we honor our 
commitment in the Budapest Memorandum, honor our treaty commitments to 
the NATO countries? Because one of the ways we protect American 
national security is when we make an agreement with a country--when we 
make a formal, legal agreement--we honor our commitments. And we want 
countries to know that we stand by our friends, that we stand by our 
word, that our treaties mean something, because if countries learn that 
under weak and feckless Presidents, our treaties--our formal, binding, 
legal documents--aren't worth the paper they are written on, it 
undermines the ability of any President of the United States to 
negotiate agreements with our friends and allies that keep Americans 
safe.
  When Ronald Reagan was standing up and confronting the ``Evil 
Empire,'' we saw the virtues of peace through strength.
  Biden's foreign policy seems to invite war through weakness. There 
are actions we can take today, like sanctioning Nord Stream 2, like 
sending lethal aid to Ukraine, like committing to keep our NATO forces 
in countries that border Russia.
  All of these actions would show Putin that the United States will 
stand up to aggression and defend our national interests. We should 
take these actions without delay. We should stand in bipartisan unity 
in support of American national security, in opposition to Russian 
aggression. If we do not, if the Senate acquiesces to Biden's weakness 
and appeasement and Russia invades Ukraine and, weeks from now, there 
are Russian tanks in the streets of Kyiv, Ukraine and Europe and 
America and the world will reap the whirlwind.
  This is our opportunity to act. I pray that we take it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cortez Masto). The Senator from Colorado.
  Mr. BENNET. Madam President, I would ask through the Chair how long 
the Senator from Texas might be.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas is recognized.
  Mr. BENNET. Madam President, I defer to the Senator from Texas.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Thank you.
  The Senator from Texas is recognized when he is ready.
  Mr. CORNYN. I would yield my----
  Mr. BENNET. The Senator from Texas was yielding patiently, and just 
for clarity of the record, I yield to the senior Senator from the State 
of Texas.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas is recognized.