Unlike the President, senators from both parties underline the need to take a tough stance against Russia, which increasingly carries out aggression abroad and repressive domestically.
A group of eight senators from the Republican party wrote a letter today to the President of trump, in which he said:
The United States must unambiguously condemn Russia and to take pre-emptive action to deter continued Russian aggression in Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine and illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula, acting in defiance of international law. It also directly encourages and supports the so-called “separatists and rebels” in Eastern Ukraine. Since 2014 during this tragic conflict has killed more than 10 thousand Ukrainians, but because of the fighting in the country today, half a million internally displaced persons. Another escalation of hostilities along the “line of contact” in Eastern Ukraine should be a reminder of the villainous intentions of Russia.
The administration should retain the current U.S. sanctions regime against Russia and Russian business entities, and, if necessary, to impose new sanctions that Russia deserved their behavior — if not restored Ukrainian control over Crimea, if Russia does not comply fully with the Minsk agreement, and if she did not cease his efforts to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty. Further, we ask that you expedite supply defensive lethal weapons to Ukraine. We are encouraged that the Secretary of state Tillerson during the hearing with the approval of office supported this position.
The senators have warned about the inadmissibility of bargaining about the fate of Syria. (“The United States should not join any military or diplomatic agreement with Russia on the future of Syria, while Moscow will not cease their hostilities, caused tremendous damage and human suffering and will not abandon support for the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad.”) They also condemned the Russian cyberwar against the West. In conclusion, the senators said: “And most important: we urge you to notify Moscow that the values of democracy, human rights, transparency and accountability is extremely important for American foreign policy that these values may not be the subject of bargaining, and that the United States will continue to promote them throughout the world, including in Russia. President Putin must know that the United States remains a beacon of hope and democracy around the world, and will fight for what’s right.”
Oddly enough, the willingness to call Putin to account for the repression in Russia and to protect American democracy split of determined senators (Democrats and Republicans) and those legislators who are more interested in logical justification for the actions of trump and share his views. The reason is obvious: trump runs the trump ordering (as in the text — approx. transl.), denigrating Western democratic institutions and avoiding any talk about the Russian kleptocracy, human rights abuses and war crimes in Syria. (Incidentally, America’s reputation does not improve from the fact that the American President is not abandoning its business and uses the White house for the enrichment of their children.)
Putin robbed of their country by tens of billions, as reported by American intelligence sources, however, States almost never tell. A senior member of the special permanent Committee on intelligence of the house of representatives Adam Schiff (Adam Schiff) (Democrat from California) last year has brought convincing arguments in favour of the disclosure of this information. Schiff called on President Obama in response to the Russian hacker attacks during the elections in the US to start “exposing corruption in the Kremlin and the corruption of Putin”. The weakening of Putin in the country and a refutation of his arguments that morally the United States is no better than Russia, should be an integral part of our national security strategy against Moscow.
A high-ranking member of the Committee on foreign relations, Senator Ben Cardin (Ben Cardin) (Republican from Maryland) today also touched on this subject at the Committee meeting. “I just want to say a few words about what’s bothering me in the attempts of the President of trump to put a sign of moral equality between the bloody actions of Putin and the country’s activities, he said. — There is no moral equivalence, and I think it provided a disservice to those soldiers who protect our country and our democratic values. I had to say about it.” He praised U.S. representative to the UN, Nikki Haley, saying during a hearing to approve it in the position that sanctions against Moscow cannot be canceled as long as “Russia does not fulfill the requirements of the Helsinki accords, will not leave the Crimea, does not cease interference in Ukraine and comply with all conditions of the Minsk agreements”. As Republicans Cardin believes that Putin’s actions abroad and domestically related. “Washington should demonstrate its determination, because Moscow will continue to intervene in the democratic process in our country and in allied. It will continue to violate the sovereignty of its neighbors, going further and further, until it will stop”.
We don’t think trump understands all this and is seriously worried on this score. (According to media reports, he doesn’t even know what the start-3 Treaty.) Documentation and publication and the skillful use of information about corruption in Russia and about Putin’s repressive regime should always be the center of attention. The white house is unlikely to be the initiator of this work, but this gap may be filled by the state Department and Congress. And this object can only Putin, trump and his apologists.
