[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2223]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             TRUMP SIDES WITH RUSSIA IN COMMENTS ON UKRAINE

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today regarding President Trump's 
strange admiration for Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Our President 
seems to side with Russia over Ukraine and is defaulting to tyranny 
over liberty.
  Despite ample evidence from our defense community and European 
allies, President Trump still casts doubt on whether Moscow is backing 
Russian forces who have killed over 10,000 innocent Ukrainians and who 
recently killed at least eight more Ukrainian soldiers and 40 civilians 
and turned off water and electricity in the invaded region.
  When Bill O'Reilly asked our President if he respected Putin, a known 
killer, the President replied: ``There are a lot of killers. You think 
our country's so innocent?''
  The President equates Mr. Putin's actions with those of our country. 
It is not the first time this has happened.
  Every time President Trump says something Putin likes, it is 
broadcast on Kremlin-owned propaganda machines like RT. This is a 
dangerous threat to liberty.
  President Trump openly admires and appeases Putin, whose tenure is 
known for human rights abuses, brutal suppression of political dissent, 
and mysterious deaths of journalists and political opponents, like 
Vladimir Kara-Murza who wrote a letter critical of Putin to the Senate 
Foreign Relations Committee regarding the nomination of Secretary 
Tillerson. Last Thursday, while in Moscow, he fell into a life-
threatening coma believed to be caused by an unknown poison.
  Mr. Speaker, we cannot continue to normalize what President Trump is 
doing. We cannot afford to take our country back to an era of unchecked 
Russian aggression.
  We need freedom. That is what is at stake.
  I include in the Record a February 6, 2017, article by Julie 
Hirschfeld Davis.

                             [Feb. 6, 2017]

         Trump Seems to Side With Russia in Comments on Ukraine

                      (By Julie Hirschfeld Davis)

       Washington.--President Trump cast doubt on whether Moscow 
     is backing separatists engaged in the recent escalation of 
     fighting in eastern Ukraine, appearing to side with President 
     Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has long denied involvement 
     in the conflict despite evidence to the contrary.
       Mr. Trump said he did not take offense at the outbreak of a 
     lethal bout of fighting in Ukraine that came within a day of 
     a phone conversation he had with Mr. Putin, saying of the 
     recent clashes, ``we don't really know exactly what that 
     is.''
       ``They're pro-forces,'' Mr. Trump said of the Ukrainian 
     separatists in an interview that aired on Monday on ``The 
     O'Reilly Factor,'' on Fox News. ``We don't know, are they 
     uncontrollable? Are they uncontrolled? That happens also. 
     We're going to find out; I would be surprised, but we'll 
     see.''
       Mr. Trump's comments were the latest indication that his 
     desire for warmer relations with Russia may be coloring his 
     view of the conflict in Ukraine, which pits the country's 
     military--trained and equipped in part by the United States 
     Army--against Russian-backed separatists. Moscow has denied 
     involvement in the three-year conflict, despite evidence that 
     it has provided equipment and fighters to support separatist 
     forces in eastern Ukraine.
       The president's push for a friendlier relationship with Mr. 
     Putin has alarmed Ukrainian officials, who fear that the 
     pressure former President Barack Obama applied on Russia to 
     withdraw its unacknowledged military forces from eastern 
     Ukraine will wane.
       A telephone call Mr. Trump held on Saturday with President 
     Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine raised further questions about 
     his position on the conflict and his administration's 
     commitment to maintaining sanctions against Russia for the 
     annexation of Crimea.
       In an official account of the call, Mr. Trump had said he 
     was willing to work with Kiev and Moscow to resolve the 
     conflict. But the statement referred to helping to ``restore 
     peace along the border,'' while the violence has been playing 
     out inside eastern Ukraine.

     

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