[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 89 (Wednesday, May 22, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S3821]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 RUSSIA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last week, just days after President 
Orban rolled out the red carpet in Budapest for President Xi, the 
Chinese dictator rolled out a red carpet in Beijing for Vladimir Putin. 
The ``friendship without limits'' struck between America's greatest 
strategic adversaries will now endure ``for generations to come.'' And 
it appears to be rooted in a shared myth about the nature of world 
conflicts and a victim complex that would be laughable if it didn't 
carry such grave consequences for Western peace and security.
  At last week's summit, Russia and China together accused the United 
States of threatening the world's strategic balance, as if it is 
Washington rather than Beijing or Moscow trying to redraw borders by 
force or to disrupt global order.
  Well, if you are looking for the government that has doubled its 
nuclear arsenal in 3 years, you will find it in Beijing, not 
Washington. In fact, Americans' own strategic deterrent continues to 
suffer from chronic neglect. And the Biden administration continues to 
submit defense budgets that fail to keep up with inflation, much less 
with the growing threat posed by the PRC.
  And if you are looking for the regime recklessly developing an 
insanely provocative and destabilizing nuclear weapon to deploy in 
space, you will find that one in Moscow.
  The world's leading authoritarians never seem to let the facts get in 
the way. But economic and military realities matter enormously to the 
future of fledgling democracies and developing nations who are 
vulnerable to their economic coercion and thuggish political 
intimidation.
  The challenge to Western peace and security is not confined to the 
Taiwan Straits and the trenches of Ukraine. Chinese debt traps and 
Russian security forces are expanding malign influence from Central 
America to Central Asia to Africa and to our own Western Hemisphere.
  Russia's efforts to strangle democracy and wrestle free societies 
back under its control are perhaps most glaring along the borders of 
Europe.
  After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the unshackled nations have 
largely chosen freedom and worked to build democratic governments and 
societies oriented squarely to the West. And the neo-Soviet 
imperialists in the Kremlin see that as a threat.
  Leaders in Washington are prone to forget how fragile our own 
experiment in democracy was during its earliest days and how precious 
are the safeguards our Founders enshrined in our government to protect 
the minority from the excesses of authoritarianism of majority rule.
  Sometimes, of course, politicians in Washington even flirt with the 
idea of tearing down these safeguards of democracies to deny the 
minority any meaningful power.
  Fortunately, there is still a bipartisan firewall in the Senate 
against this sort of shortsighted radicalism. But for nascent, 
vulnerable democracies, such safeguards face even graver threats. And 
in Georgia, a parliamentary majority's quest for power is threatening 
to suffocate the nation's civil society and unravel the guardrails of 
its democracy.
  In an attempt to consolidate its hold on government, the Georgian 
Dream Party would stamp out the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of the 
Georgian people.
  And while the political opposition is large, it is chronically 
divided against itself. Despite their feckless party leaders, thousands 
of Georgians have taken to the streets to protest. Their desire for 
self-determination and freedom from Russian coercion is obvious. Four 
in five Georgians tell pollsters they want a distinctly European 
future.
  They believe that planting themselves firmly in the West, among 
democratic nations where the rule of law prevails, is in their best 
interest.
  Whether Georgia looks East or West matters to the United States. 
Standing with free people resisting the aggression of tyrants like 
Putin or Xi is in our own interests. This is true of Taiwan and 
Ukraine, Estonia, and Japan.
  And it is true of Georgia. The Georgian people deserve the right to 
write their own future, not have it dictated to them by Moscow's 
preferred party chiefs.
  And why is it that Russians obsess over controlling Georgia's future? 
It is about more than acting out Putin's neo-imperialist fantasy. 
Geography matters. For millennia, Georgia and its Black Sea coast stood 
at the crossroads of the civilized world. It is a key transit point 
for critical resources. And today, along with Armenia, it sits as a 
tantalizing link in the land bridge between authoritarian partners in 
Moscow and Tehran.

  The people of Georgia have a long history of enduring conflict and 
conquest. They have a long tradition of resilience and a rich culture 
to be proud of. And they know there is a difference between bending to 
Russia and turning to the West.
  So, like friends of the Georgian people across the West, I am hopeful 
this moment will be one which can take yet more pride, as a moment when 
the opposition to Russian coercion puts petty differences aside and 
stands united.
  Of course, this must also be a moment for Georgia's ruling party to 
recognize the costs of ignoring their people's will in order to fulfill 
Putin's whims and to stop short of shredding their relationship with 
the West.
  I hope those in power in Tbilisi will put sovereignty over 
subjugation and withdraw the coercive ``Russia law'' from parliament.

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