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Undermining Democracy: Kremlin Tools of Malign Political Influence

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Undermining Democracy: Kremlin Tools of Malign Political Influence UNDERMINING DEMOCRACY: KREMLIN TOOLS OF MALIGN POLITICAL INFLUENCE HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE, EURASIA, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION May 21, 2019 Serial No. 116–41 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/, http://docs.house.gov, or http://www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 36–426PDF WASHINGTON : 2019 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York, Chairman BRAD SHERMAN, California MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas, Ranking GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York Member ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia STEVE CHABOT, Ohio THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida JOE WILSON, South Carolina KAREN BASS, California SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts TED S. YOHO, Florida DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois AMI BERA, California LEE ZELDIN, New York JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas JIM SENSENBRENNER, Wisconsin DINA TITUS, Nevada ANN WAGNER, Missouri ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York BRIAN MAST, Florida TED LIEU, California FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota JOHN CURTIS, Utah ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota KEN BUCK, Colorado COLIN ALLRED, Texas RON WRIGHT, Texas ANDY LEVIN, Michigan GUY RESCHENTHALER, Pennsylvania ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, Virginia TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania GREG PENCE, Indiana TOM MALINOWSKI, New Jersey STEVE WATKINS, Kansas DAVID TRONE, Maryland MIKE GUEST, Mississippi JIM COSTA, California JUAN VARGAS, California VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas JASON STEINBAUM, Staff Director BRENDAN SHIELDS, Republican Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE, EURASIA, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts, Chairman ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, Virginia ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois, Ranking GREGORY MEEKS, New York Member ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey JOE WILSON, South Carolina THEODORE DEUTCH, Florida ANN WAGNER, Missouri DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island JIM SENSENBRENNER, Wisconsin JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida DINA TITUS, Nevada BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania GREG PENCE, Indiana DAVID TRONE, Maryland RON WRIGHT, Texas JIM COSTA, California MIKE GUEST, Mississippi VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee GABRIELLE GOULD, Staff Director (II) C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES Carpenter, Dr. Michael, Senior Director, Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense with Responsibility for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, the Balkans, and Conven- tional Arms Control ............................................................................................. 8 Rosenberger, Laura, Director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy and Senior Fellow with the German Marshall Fund ............................................... 21 Conley, Heather, Senior Vice President, Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic, Director, Europe Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State .............................................. 35 Doran, Peter, President & CEO, Center for European Policy Analysis .............. 46 APPENDIX Hearing Notice ......................................................................................................... 73 Hearing Minutes ...................................................................................................... 74 Hearing Attendance ................................................................................................. 75 ADDITIONAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD Chaos as Strategy .................................................................................................... 76 Policy Blueprint for Countering Authoritarian Interference in Democracies ..... 132 RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD Responses to questions submitted for the record from Representative Wagner 176 (III) UNDERMINING DEMOCRACY: KREMLIN TOOLS OF MALIGN POLITICAL INFLUENCE Tuesday, May 21, 2019 House of Representatives Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy, and the Environment Committee on Foreign Affairs Washington, DC The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:04 a.m., in room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. William Keating (chair- man of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. KEATING. This hearing will come to order. The subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony on ‘‘Undermining Democracy: Kremlin Tools of Malign Political Influence.’’ Without objection, all members have 5 days to submit statements and questions, extraneous materials, and the like for the record subject to the length limitation in the rules. I will now make an opening statement and turn it over to the ranking member for his opening statement. But I would like to ask, without objection, unanimous consent that my remarks might be extended a bit because we are going to show a film—a short film, 2 and a half minute film—that I think will shed some light on what we are discussing today. I would like to welcome you all to the hearing on Russia and, specifically, the Kremlin’s tools of political influence around the world. Much of our work so far in the subcommittee is focused on our need as the United States to remain a leader in standing up for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, and the importance of working together with our allies who share our commitment to these ideals. Today, we continue along that vein and have before us expert witnesses who will explain how Putin’s Russia undermines demo- cratic processes and institutions around the world through various means such as illicit finance, so-called dark money, and corruption. It is interesting that, as was focused on military aggression in places like Georgia and Ukraine and we are focused on cyber threats, the idea of the corrupt influence operation, as Dr. Car- penter so called it, hasn’t received the same attention. But it is so important in realizing what’s going on in the threats to our democracy, particularly by Russia. So these issues are among other inventions that are attempts to weaken public dis- course around elections and affect their results. We ourselves have experience with this. Russia intervened in our elections in 2016. With greater awareness now after this experi- ence, officials from European and EU elections have been vigilant (1) 2 working to protect their electoral systems and monitor for attempts at undermining their democracies. More systemic ways, however, are used and using illicit financing and corruption to influence political actors and parties is one of them. Just this weekend Austria’s vice chancellor resigned after a shocking video was released seemingly showing him voluntarily en- gaging with an individual posing as a member—a family member— of a Russian oligarch to advance his far-right political party. We are still learning about this video and the circumstances be- hind how this exchange came to occur. The Russian government has asserted that they have nothing to do with that. We will hear from our witnesses in their testimony how Russia does use in instance agents that have that degree of separation. Whether that is the case here or not is to be determined. But it will be important to analyze this as one graphic way that this can be done. The vice chancellor in question has apologized for aspects of his behavior and has resigned over the weekend, and the chancellor has called for snap elections to take place. I do believe, though, that regardless of the unfolding details that this is an important glimpse for everyone who has been working on these issues into what kind of corruption occurs and what it could look like. We have an excerpt of the video, and with unanimous consent we will play it for the subcommittee now. Just note that if you are watching it, Kronen refers to a prominent newspaper and Strabag is a major Austrian construction company. So if we could queue this and take a few minutes—a couple of minutes to look at this film. [Video is played.] Mr. KEATING. This whole situation underscores two things in particular. First, that corruption around elections and political power is real. Whether this was a real transaction or whether any- thing would have come of it has not taken away yet, as the inves- tigation continues. But it does not take away from the fact that this video affirms what many experts have studied including those joining us today, that this kind of corruption happens. It is more commonplace than I think we often would like to admit. Second, that once we recognize Russian malign political influence around the world for the threat that it is, we have an opportunity here. There were protests in Austria following the release of these tapes and there has been widespread condemnation of the elected officials’ blatant willingness to sacrifice important democratic prin- ciples like fair competition, government accountability, and free- dom of the press. Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant. We need to support inves- tigative journalism and transparency around campaign financing and always will be sure to protect civic space for free speech and association. 3 Whether it is a setup or actual Russian corruption transactions designed to affect internal governing or elections in a country, de- mocracies, including the United States and our European allies, need to come together to
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