[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15025]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     THE RUSSIANS KEEP MOVING WEST

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 17, 2014

  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the Russian bear is back, seeking to 
devour his neighbors and reclaim his kingdom. Mr. Putin, or the 
Napoleon of Siberia as I like to call him, yearns for the glory days of 
the Soviet Union when the great communist empire extended from Latvia 
in the north to Tajikistan in the south. Putin is systematically 
reestablishing the Soviet Empire, but this time with Putin as king.
  In November 2013, Putin bribed the then President of Ukraine with a 
payment of $15 billion in exchange for cutting off negotiations with 
the European Union that would have integrated Ukraine more into the 
West.
  When then President Yanukovych accepted the bribe, hundreds of 
thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets in peaceful protest. With 
the loss of the support of the people, in February 2014 the corrupt 
President left his gilded palace, resigned his position, and retreated 
back to Russia.
  The people of Ukraine elected a new government who would represent 
their desire to be free and move closer to the West.
  Putin did not like this one bit. So, he sent in his henchmen, first 
in Crimea and then in towns in eastern Ukraine, to stir unrest. Then in 
came the Russian troops to ``protect'' the ethnic Russians from the 
crisis that Putin created.
  We have seen this movie before. The Russians are doing the same thing 
to the Ukrainians in 2014 as they did to the Georgians in 2008.
  In 2008, I was in Georgia just after the Russians invaded. Georgia 
was moving closer and closer to the West. Russia did not like this, so 
it decided to create instability. It sent in its henchmen to cause 
trouble. Then Putin sent in Russian troops and tanks to stop the 
trouble it created. Six years later, the Russians are still there.
  This winter, the Russian bear is not going to go into hibernation. 
Mr. Putin is going to dial up the pressure. He knows how reliant much 
of Europe is on Russian energy. When the weather gets colder, much of 
Europe will be at the mercy of Putin in order to stay warm. Putin is 
not afraid to use energy as leverage. I know because I was in Ukraine 
when Russia turned off the gas in 2006. It was cold. Unless Europe 
diversifies, it is only going to become more reliant on Russian gas.
  We have an easy solution to this. The United States is in the midst 
of an energy revolution. We have more natural gas than we can use. In 
fact, natural gas is being left in the ground and burnt off at the well 
head because producers have no domestic buyers. There is a glut in the 
market. But the government, that institution that always seems to get 
in the way, says producers cannot sell the gas abroad without 
permission first from the Department of Energy. The Department of 
Energy is like any government bureaucracy--slow as molasses. Meanwhile, 
the Europeans are months away from being subject to Russian blackmail.
  That's why I introduced H.R. 4155, the Fight Russian Energy 
Exploitation (FREE) Act. The bill would free up our gas to go to the 
former Soviet states like Ukraine and countries in the European Union. 
Our allies want our gas and are willing to pay for it. If we sell our 
gas to them, it means more money injected into our economy and more 
American jobs. It is so simple you wonder why it has not been done 
already.
  Putin is in this for the long-term. Russian troops are still in 
Ukraine and just like in Georgia, they have no plans on leaving. If the 
Ukrainian government is not going to move towards Russia, then Putin 
has decided he is going to make them as weak and unstable as possible 
so they cannot move towards the West in any meaningful way.
  The Russians cannot be trusted. Back in 1994, in exchange for Ukraine 
giving up its nuclear weapons, Russia promised to respect the 
territorial integrity of Ukraine. The B Budapest Memorandum on Security 
Assurances was just a piece of paper to the Russians. So much for 
diplomacy and trusting the Russia bear not to eat more territory.
  Appeasement is not the answer. Russia will keep taking as much as the 
West is willing to let them. Who knows who could be next--Latvia, 
Estonia, Moldova? What then? When will the West decide enough is 
enough?
  The United States and Europe must come together. It is together that 
we can offer tough sanctions that will deal a big blow to Putin. As we 
tighten the economic noose around the Russia bear, we should loosen our 
ban on the export of crude oil and cut the red tape so we can export 
more natural gas to our European partners. We should also stand behind 
President Poroshenko with meaningful economic and military aid. He is 
doing all he can to prevent the Russians from taking over more of his 
country, but he cannot do it alone.
  Winter is coming. Free people that want to remain free, better take 
heed.
  And that's just the way it is.

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