[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4986]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  DON'T CROSS THE NAPOLEON OF SIBERIA

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, for the last 8 years, the world turned 
its cheek while Vladimir Putin--the Napoleon of Siberia--stomped on 
human rights and broke international law.
  I was there right after the Russians invaded Georgia and took one-
third of the country. Then Putin went on to annex Crimea and invade 
Ukraine. Just this month, Denis Voronenkov, a Russian lawmaker who 
opposed Putin and defected to Ukraine, was gunned down in broad 
daylight. His assassination is the latest incident in an ongoing 
pattern of Putin critics who have been killed mysteriously. In the last 
15 years, at least 11 other well-known critics of Putin have been 
killed mysteriously.
  The message is clear: cross Putin, and you will face the lethal wrath 
of the Russian bear. Putin thinks he can continue killing those who 
oppose him and no one is watching. But I am here to tell him today that 
America is watching, and America will never stop defending the 
defenseless and protecting the human rights of people who speak against 
tyranny--even Russians who speak against tyranny.
  And that is just the way it is.

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