[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4950]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         COMPLETE INVESTIGATION NEEDED INTO RUSSIAN CONNECTION

  (Mr. RASKIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, every American who loves freedom, democracy, 
and public integrity this week is expressing solidarity with the 
hundreds of thousands of anticorruption protesters in Russia who took 
to the streets on Sunday. That huge throng of brave Russians, including 
hundreds arrested and jailed by agents of Vladimir Putin, were 
protesting the autocrats and kleptocrats running their country, a key 
target being Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who has amassed vineyards, 
luxury yachts, and mansions worth more than $1 billion.
  We should be standing with the protesters, but the corrupt autocrats 
of Russia have found good friends in the billionaire Cabinet of 
international businessman Donald Trump, whose administration is 
administering a spreading staph infection: disgraced former National 
Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was paid by Russian companies to 
appear at Russian events; Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former CEO 
of ExxonMobil and a close friend of Vladimir Putin who was awarded in 
2013 a title of nobility called the Russian Order of Friendship; Paul 
Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager who collected $10 million a 
year to advance the agenda of Russia and Russian oligarchs.
  We should be standing with the protesters. Two-thirds of Americans 
want to see a complete, independent 9/11-style investigation into the 
Russian connection, and we owe them no less.

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