[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 41 (Tuesday, March 8, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H1367-H1370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TAKING PUTIN'S WORDS AND DEEDS SERIOUSLY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. 
Buck) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. BUCK. Madam Speaker, I am here to have a discussion with the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy), my good friend, about President Putin's 
actions in Russia.
  Putin is waging an unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine. Over 
the past 2 weeks, his attacks have become increasingly violent. The 
attacks have become more severe, even targeting residential areas.
  At the same time that Putin is engaged in a bloody war with tragic 
consequences for the people of Ukraine, he is also engaged in a 
propaganda war. His disinformation campaign is geared toward: first, 
his own people, who have largely been kept in the dark about the 
atrocities of this war against Ukraine; and, second, the entire world.
  In justifying his war to the world, Putin has relied on the 
ridiculous claim that he is the appointed person to denazify Ukraine.
  The Russian Government released a statement on March 1 through the 
Russian Embassy in Canada, stating: ``Russia continues its special 
military operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. The Russian 
army does not occupy Ukrainian territory and takes all measures to 
preserve the lives and safety of civilians. The strikes are targeting 
military facilities only. . . . The tasks to clear Ukraine of Nazism . 
. . will be accomplished.''
  Congressman Roy, there is a lot of evidence that Putin's army is 
targeting civilian targets.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Colorado (Mr. Buck) 
for this important time talking about the horrors that have been 
inflicted upon people by Vladimir Putin. Specifically, we know how much 
damage he has been causing to the people of Ukraine.
  More than 1.7 million--in fact, I saw a graphic just before I came to 
the floor--2 million Ukrainians have been displaced, have been fleeing 
Ukraine for other countries nearby.
  Over 2,000 civilians have been killed, according to reports. But, 
obviously, we don't know the extent of the damage and the carnage. 
Thirty-eight children have been killed that we know of, but there are 
probably more, and 70 wounded that we know of.
  Madam Speaker, $10 billion in damages to Ukrainian infrastructure, 
probably far more than that; 200 schools, 34 hospitals, and 1,500 
residential homes destroyed--these are the basic numbers just coming 
in. We know they are going to be far greater.
  On Saturday, a family with two children, a teenage son and a daughter 
who appeared to be 8 years old, and several

[[Page H1368]]

other civilians were killed by a Russian military strike at an 
evacuation crossing point in a Kyiv suburb as they were trying to flee 
Ukraine.
  Ukraine has required men to stay to defend their country, forcing 
families to make the unthinkable decision. One Ukraine woman said: ``It 
is very hard to have your husband stay home. You have to choose: Save 
the kids or stay with him.''
  I have heard from friends and read dozens of tragic stories in the 
past few days through friends of mine in Austin, Texas, who have gone 
to Ukraine to help people. I have been in touch, through them, with an 
orphanage in Kyiv with somewhere upward of 50 children, up to 14 
infants, up near the suburbs of north Kyiv.
  They are struggling. They are lacking food. They are lacking the 
materials to survive. They are trying to figure out how to get to a 
place where they can get to help.
  We have actors on the ground trying to help them, but they can't get 
to them because of what Putin is doing and not really heeding the calls 
for helping people be able to get out of harm's way.

  Right now, these children are completely helpless. A nurse from Lutsk 
in western Ukraine who fled to Poland said the decision on whether to 
stay or go was not instantaneous. When the Russian army first invaded 
eastern Ukraine, she and her husband decided to wait: ``We were hoping 
that the situation wouldn't develop into a full-scale invasion. But as 
hours passed, it became obvious that things were only getting worse.''
  The next morning, she and her 2-year-old son, Tymi, got in a car and 
headed for Poland, where they waited 10 hours at the border. She said 
saying good-bye to their husband and father, who stayed in Ukraine to 
build barricades, was heartbreaking.
  She and her son were hosted by a Polish family, Robert and Hana, an 
English language university instructor and a human resources 
supervisor, who live with their two children. They made it clear that 
their hospitality didn't have an end date.
  Alex in Kyiv is helping his friends evacuate. Sergei in Rivne is 
setting up shelters for his community and providing food and supplies. 
Peter in Zhytomyr packed his car yesterday and is currently taking his 
neighbors to Poland.
  Mr. BUCK. Madam Speaker, I think it is worthwhile to take a look at 
who this leader is.
  Who is Vladimir Putin? He began his career, not surprisingly, 
Congressman, at the KGB. He came to power in 2000, winning the 
presidency after having served as a Secretary of the Security Council 
of Russia and as the Director of the Federal Security Service.
  Putin served as President until 2008, when he was constitutionally 
prohibited from seeking a third term, but Putin had little regard for 
the Russian Constitution. He orchestrated a maneuver in which one of 
his yes-men would be installed as the new President, and Putin would 
assume the role of Prime Minister.
  After serving as Russia's top leader, but in the capacity of Prime 
Minister, Putin then did the unthinkable and ran again as President in 
2012. With protests and allegations of mass fraud in his background, he 
assumed another 6-year term and then again ran in 2018.
  Even more alarming, in April of last year, Putin signed into law a 
series of constitutional amendments that would permit him to run for 
President two additional terms, serving a total of 36 years.
  Putin's regime has become increasingly totalitarian, and Putin 
himself has put his KGB background to use, employing Soviet-era 
repressions against the people of Russia.

                              {time}  2130

  He has cracked down on free speech, seized control of the media, and 
had his opponents and critics assassinated.
  Congressman, I know you feel strongly about how President Putin has 
put his KGB background to use.
  Mr. ROY. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BUCK. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, we are seeing Putin's propaganda tactics, as 
we speak. The world is seeing it on full display. His regime is 
systematically shutting down the free flow of information surrounding 
this brutal war in Ukraine. The State run newspapers in Russia have 
been instructed to not use the words ``invasion'' or ``war.'' Just days 
ago, Putin's regime shut off Facebook access in the country.
  Now, again, whatever Russians are able to see what we are saying on 
the floor, this is the truth. This is the truth of what Vladimir Putin 
is doing to the truth and the dissemination of information of what is 
happening in Russia, what is happening to the people of Ukraine, not 
the propaganda you're hearing in Russia.
  Just days ago, Putin's regime shut off Facebook, as I said. The 
Russian newspaper translated as ``New Newspaper'' has a brave, freedom-
loving editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov--he co-won last year's Nobel 
Peace Prize--who has been forced to remove all of the material on the 
newspaper's website related to Russia's aggression in the Ukraine.
  Think about that. That is what is happening. This isn't new. It is 
his track record. He came to power because of a terrorist act that was 
directed at Russia's own people.
  In 1999, three apartment buildings in Moscow, Dagestan, and 
Volgodonsk were bombed. Those bombings, allegedly the acts of Chechen 
terrorists, gave a pretext for going into Chechnya for a second war, 
thus solidifying support for Putin as head of the Security Council.
  Since then, almost everyone who has raised questions about these 
bombings or has attempted to investigate the cause of these bombings 
has been kicked out of Russia, imprisoned, or murdered.
  Those are the facts. That is who Putin is.
  During his more than two decades of ruling Russia, Putin has 
displayed a callous disregard for human life. He has engaged in 
murderous attacks on his political opposition.
  In 2004, the Putin regime poisoned Ukrainian Presidential candidate 
Viktor Yushchenko.
  In 2006, there was the polonium killing in London of Alexander 
Litvinenko, a defector from Russia.
  In 2009, Sergei Magnitsky was taken into police custody, beaten, 
deprived of medical care, and he died in jail.
  In 2013, Boris Berezovsky was found in his home in the United Kingdom 
dead. Berezovsky had long been a critic of Putin, accused the Kremlin 
of orchestrating the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, who had been 
poisoned in 2006.
  In 2015, Boris Nemtsov was shot four times in the back just a short 
distance from the Kremlin. He was another critic of Putin.
  And in 2017, the world was horrified by the daylight shooting of 
Denis Voronenkov, who was murdered in Kyiv after renouncing his Russian 
citizenship and criticizing Vladimir Putin. That is the truth of 
Putin's brutality.
  Mr. BUCK. And, Congressman Roy, I just want to go through one of 
these slides again, if I can. I don't know if you got a look at this, 
but this is the before and after. This is a man who left, went to 
England, was poisoned, and this is what he looked like before, and that 
is after he was poisoned with radioactive materials.
  Mr. ROY. And how was he poisoned?
  Mr. BUCK. Radioactive material. He was poisoned, and that is how he 
looks afterwards. Unbelievable that one human being can do this to 
another human being, much less a leader of a major nuclear power in the 
world.
  Mr. ROY. Is there any disagreement on the intelligence that this is 
what occurred at the hands of Vladimir Putin's orders?
  Mr. BUCK. Right. No disagreement in the world. And what is so 
significant is when Vladimir Putin says this is what is happening in 
Ukraine, who can believe him?
  Mr. ROY. Right.
  Mr. BUCK. In fact, you can pretty much go to Vegas and bet your money 
on the opposite of what this man says. If he is able to do something 
like this, one, he is a coward, and two, he is a monster.
  During his more than two decades of ruling Russia, Putin has 
displayed a callous disregard for human life. As part of Putin's war on 
Chechnya, he ordered the destruction of Chechnya's capital Grozny. Tens 
of thousands of civilians were killed in this brutal assault.
  In 2008, Putin waged another war, this time in Georgia, another part 
of

[[Page H1369]]

the former Soviet Union. The Georgian President during Putin's assault 
in 2008 had this to say in The Wall Street Journal, and, Congressman 
Roy, I want you to really hear this because it is so unbelievable how 
similar what the Georgian President said in 2008 is to the game plan 
that Putin has orchestrated in Ukraine.
  Mr. ROY. Yes.
  Mr. BUCK. ``Long before its conventional assault on Georgia, Russia 
openly backed separatist militants--that sounds familiar--launched 
cyberattacks and used disinformation to meddle in the internal affairs 
of sovereign states. Initial intelligence reports of Russian forces 
entering Georgian territory didn't even cause enough concern to order 
Georgian military officials back from their holidays. . . .
  ``But in August 2008, under the auspices of securing the separatist 
enclave, Russia invaded my country . . .
  ``Leaving aside the practical impossibility of Georgia attacking a 
nuclear power 100 times its size, the entirety of the conflict took 
place on internationally recognized Georgian territory. The Kremlin's 
claim that its land forces mobilized overnight in response to 
an emergency was absurd. Such an onslaught required careful 
preparation, especially given the mountainous terrain of the Russian-
Georgian border.''

  And I think what is really important to point out here is that 
President Putin has used the exact same plan, the exact same formula 
down to the T, claiming that there are Russian-speaking people and he 
is trying to protect those people in Ukraine, down to the absurd claim 
that Ukraine is a Nazi government now. All these claims are made up, 
they are nonsense to try to justify in the minds of the Russian people 
what Putin is engaged in.
  Mr. ROY. That is exactly right. And I want to take 1 minute because 
it merits repeating because we are sitting here in the United States of 
America in the protection of our great Republic miles away from what is 
happening in Ukraine, and it bears repeating that there are two million 
Ukrainians right now fleeing Ukraine, fleeing their homes. We 
fortunately haven't had to experience that sort of thing.
  But two million people right now are fleeing their homes, dads and 
husbands staying behind in Ukraine, families fleeing, seeking shelter, 
thousands killed, we don't know how many, children killed, billions of 
dollars of damage, destroying crops, destroying infrastructure, taking 
over nuclear power plants.
  And I just got a text, literally as I am standing here, from my 
friends in Austin, Texas--from the wife whose husband is currently now 
in Ukraine trying to help people--talking about the orphanage I talked 
about in northern Kyiv. She says 51 kids are trapped; 51 kids trapped.
  Do you have kids? People around here, many of us have kids. Fifty-one 
kids trapped after orphanage bombed and director killed. The director 
of the orphanage was killed. Running out of food. No heat or 
electricity. Cold front coming. Will freeze or starve if we can't get 
there soon. Fifteen infants. Special needs kids. Currently shelling of 
all civilian targets being perpetrated and carried out by Putin. The 
same Putin that killed a Ukrainian leader with nuclear poisoning.
  This from my friend: We are pleading for someone to help us get to 
the children before it is too late. And we are trying. Anybody out 
there watching, we are trying to figure out how to get to this 
orphanage and get them to people who can help. But that is the product 
of Vladimir Putin. And if you are watching this, and if you are in 
Russia or if this clip gets to you and it isn't cut off by Putin and 
his thug leadership in Russia, this is the truth of Vladimir Putin. 
This is what he is doing to innocent people.
  And he is lying to you that these children are being put up as 
somehow being a front and being put up to be put in harm's way. He is 
indiscriminately bombing. He is the cause of these children being in 
danger. He is the cause of this murder. He is the cause of thousands of 
people getting killed, millions getting displaced, billions in damage, 
and it is all because he is a thug and an autocrat, who is going after 
and killing innocent people.

                              {time}  2140

  Mr. BUCK. An immoral person does not wage a moral war, does not 
poison people, does not continue to commit the war crimes and the 
illegalities--murdering a political opponent just blocks away from the 
Kremlin. That kind of immoral person doesn't have the standing to talk 
to the world about what is going on in Ukraine.
  I know, Congressman, you were a prosecutor. I was a prosecutor. When 
we had a criminal defendant who lied, that was a special treat, because 
we got to put witnesses on the stand, and we called it a false 
exculpatory. And Vladimir Putin has gone through his entire political 
career using false exculpatories; telling people one thing happened 
when, in fact, something else happened.
  And the reason it is so important to point out false exculpatories 
is, it is a sign of guilt. And in this case, Vladimir Putin knows what 
he is doing is in violation of international law. He has committed 
numerous war crimes through his military; indiscriminately bombing 
civilian targets. And he is a war criminal, and he should be brought to 
justice.
  But my question to you now is, Congressman, are we doing everything 
we can as a country to make sure that we bring this thug--as you put 
it--this animal who is violating international law, killing children, 
destroying billions of dollars worth of infrastructure in Ukraine. Are 
we, as Americans, are we, as the civilized world working with Western 
Europe, working with NATO, are we doing everything we can to bring this 
man to justice and to stop the tragedy that is going on in Ukraine?
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, well, I appreciate my friend from Colorado's 
question. And I would note in your comparison as to our experience as 
Federal prosecutors, that there is no entity that is able to hold him 
to account in Russia because he is running the whole show as a 
dictator, and there is no free press.
  In our country--as bad as the press can be--we at least hope that we 
can get the truth out through the vestiges of the First Amendment and 
the importance of the free press, no matter who is in the White House. 
Right?
  Mr. BUCK. Yes.
  Mr. ROY. Neither you nor I shied away from criticizing the former 
President of the United States, despite the fact he had an ``R'' after 
his name. Nor will we shy away from criticizing this President who has 
a ``D'' after his name. Why? Because we are Article I, and he is 
Article II.
  And the Founders gave us a free press to say we are going to have the 
press holding all of us to account, and the separation of power so we 
can hold the President to account. There is none of that here.
  Mr. BUCK. And one more thing, when the press holds us to account, we 
stand up. We may disagree with them. We may offer another version of 
the facts, but we don't shut down the press. We don't close their 
doors. We don't turn off the TV station when they call something a war. 
When they call a war a war, we don't shut them down. That is exactly 
what is happening in Russia right now.
  Mr. ROY. And the most important thing that we can do, in my opinion, 
is do what we are doing right here. And I hope all my colleagues will 
do this. And I hope everybody will unite. And I hope the American free 
press will unite, and the worldwide free press will unite, to call this 
out for what it is--a war criminal killing innocents for sheer power 
and for sheer determination of what he wants for his own agenda, not 
for any kind of honorable reasons in defending his homeland.
  Whatever he is telling you and the people of Russia that this is 
somehow an honorable defense of Russia, it is not. He is lying to you. 
He is killing innocent people in the name of your homeland. And you 
need to know that. And you need to know the truth. And you need to see 
what he is doing to people.
  And we, in this country, need to continue to do more. And I know we 
are here to talk about Putin, and we are here to talk about this 
situation of holding him accountable. And I don't want to get too 
partisan here, but our country should have been doing more sooner.
  We should have been listening to Zelensky. I have heard a whole lot 
of applause lately for Zelensky from my

[[Page H1370]]

colleagues on the other side of the aisle. But where were we last July 
when he was asking for help with sanctions?
  Where were my colleagues on the other side of the aisle when my 
former boss and my friend, Senator Ted Cruz, forced a vote in the 
Senate on Nord Stream 2?
  MIA. Partisan vote: We are not going to continue sanctions on Nord 
Stream 2. We are going to go along with Biden's decision to stop 
sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
  Well, what do you think happens when you allow Putin and Russia to 
have a complete control of the energy supply of Europe?
  What do you think is going to happen when you empower a thug and a 
dictator? What do you think is going to happen?
  And right now today, we have a complete refusal by my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle, and frankly, too many colleagues on my 
side of the aisle, who refuse to say that we are, today, going to open 
up American energy, liquefied natural gas, oil, and produce it in this 
country to ensure that this man doesn't have the power to do what he is 
doing in Ukraine.
  Mr. BUCK. Madam Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 7 minutes remaining.
  Mr. BUCK. Madam Speaker, to go back a little bit in history, when 
President Putin invaded Crimea, President Obama refused to give legal 
assistance to Ukraine. It wasn't until President Trump came in that 
legal assistance was given to Ukraine.
  And then to President Biden's credit, he ramped up that lethal aid as 
the threat got greater. And we have seen a great deal of lethal aid 
going to the Ukraine military. They are using it wisely. They are 
fighting a courageous war against a much, much greater military power.
  But I agree with you, Congressman. We could be doing more. We could 
be sanctioning more, the source of Russia's money, their income, their 
revenue for waging this war. And we should be doing that. And that is 
just one of the areas, just one of them.

  We should be doing more in banking. We should be doing more in trade, 
in blockades. But one of the ways that we can sanction them is by 
producing more natural gas, more fossil fuels here at home. We should 
be shipping liquefied natural gas to our allies in Western Europe to 
wean them off the reliance on energy from Russia.
  Mr. ROY. How has the lawless authoritarian managed to regain his 
power? Well, I will tell you. Europe made themselves completely 
dependent on Russian energy.
  And if you want a wake-up call and you want a warning shot in this 
country, Russia controls 40 percent of the EU's natural gas and 30 
percent of its oil. Germany buys more gas from Russia than any other 
country.
  They chose this. They chose fracking bans. They chose to shut down 
energy freedom in Western Europe. They chose to pursue a political 
climate ideology over national security and commonsense and energy for 
their citizenry. And now, they are beholden to Russia. And now, we have 
empowered Russia.
  This stuff matters. Wars have been fought over these kinds of things, 
and we just empowered an autocrat to roll over the people of Ukraine 
because of the leadership of the Democrats on the other side of the 
aisle. And the people in this White House are pursuing climate ideology 
over national security; climate ideology over energy freedom; climate 
ideology over affordable gas; and the ability for the American people 
to thrive while empowering the people of Ukraine instead of a thug like 
Putin.
  Mr. BUCK. In addition to that, it is time that our allies in NATO 
step up, spend the money they are supposed to spend on their military, 
on their defense structure, and move forward with us. It is not time 
for Americans to constantly fight wars in other countries when other 
countries haven't stepped up and recognized the dangers of a man like 
Vladimir Putin.
  I don't know if it is the equivalent of our Secretary of Defense or 
Army Chief of Staff, or maybe the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff, but the head of the German military mocked his own military, 
talking about how unprepared they would be in the event of a conflict 
with Russia.
  Putin knows that. Putin has intelligence agents. And they have 
scoured the Western European countries. They know exactly what the 
strength is of those countries. They know what their willingness is to 
fight. And Putin has made a decision that he can take Ukraine with very 
little consequence. That is a serious issue.
  Mr. ROY. You are exactly right. And tomorrow, we are going to be 
voting on a number of things. I got to be honest with you. I am 
sickened at what we are doing in this body. Instead of debating and 
voting here and having a serious discussion about how we should spend 
our assets to support Ukraine but be sensible about what we are doing 
in policies here, we are going to have a vote on banning Russian oil.
  What good does it do to ban Russian oil if you are going to buy it 
from Venezuela or Iran?

                              {time}  2150

  Why don't we produce it here in the United States? It is cleaner and 
it is better. We should be doing that right here. Instead, we are not 
going to do that.
  I am going to turn it back over because I think it is about time to 
close.
  Mr. BUCK. Madam Speaker, I just want to echo what he is saying and 
tell you that right now the dictator who is the most threatening to us, 
we are going to pull away from his energy and we are going to go with 
dictators who aren't quite as dangerous to us. That isn't a strategy. 
That is just looking at the wrong end of a revolver.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I just want to remind everyone that 51 kids 
are trapped after an orphanage is bombed and the director is killed. No 
heat or electricity. Cold front coming. That is Putin's Ukraine. We 
should be helping these people.
  Mr. BUCK. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his time tonight 
and it is always a pleasure to speak with him.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________