COUNTERING A RESURGENT RUSSIA HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION May 1, 2019 Serial No. 116–31 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 36–135PDF 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 (II) C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES Nuland, Ambassador Victoria, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings Institution, and Former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and Former United States Permanent Representative to NATO ......................................... 8 Fried, Ambassador Daniel, Distinguished Fellow, Future Europe Initiative and Eurasia Center, Atlantic Council, and Former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and Former United States Ambas- sador to Poland ..................................................................................................... 15 Keane, General Jack, U.S. Army, Retired, Chairman, Institute for the Study of War, and Former Acting Chief of Staff and Vice Chief of Staff of The U.S. Army ............................................................................................................. 30 INFORMATION SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD Unclassified Report submitted for the record from Representative Bera ........... 63 APPENDIX Hearing Notice ......................................................................................................... 95 Hearing Minutes ...................................................................................................... 96 Hearing Attendance ................................................................................................. 97 ADDITIONAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD FROM COMMITTEE MEMBERS Statement for the record from Representative Connolly ...................................... 98 RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD Responses to questions submitted from Representative Deutch ......................... 100 Responses to questions submitted from Representative Pence ........................... 101 (III) COUNTERING A RESURGENT RUSSIA Wednesday, May 1, 2019 House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Washington, DC The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:11 a.m., in Room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Eliot Engel (chairman of the committee) presiding. Chairman ENGEL [presiding]. The committee will come to order. Without objection, all members will have 5 days to submit state- ments, extraneous material, and questions for the record, subject to the length limitation in the rules. Today we will hear from some of our best foreign policy minds on one of our most pressing foreign policy challenges, how to deal with an increasingly aggressive and belligerent Russia. Ambassador Nuland, Ambassador Fried, General Keane, wel- come. Welcome to members of the public and press as well. If you look at a map of the world, you will not find too many places that Russia is not stirring up trouble. On its own borders, Russia’s illegal occupation of Georgia and Ukraine has shattered decades of work to build peace and stability in Europe. Propaganda efforts and cyber warfare across the continent have spread lies and confusion with the clear aim of undermining Western unity and the Transatlantic Alliance. Russia has weaponized its energy resources, expanding into Eu- ropean markets and creating greater and greater dependency, par- ticularly with projects such as the Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream. These are clear efforts to increase its influence into European coun- tries and advance its political aims. In the Middle East, Russia has served as a lifeline for the mur- derous regime of Bashar al-Assad, aiding in the wholesale slaugh- ter of innocent civilians. Russia has exported these same so-called counterterrorism tactics to Sub-Saharan Africa, where, for exam- ple, in the Central African Republic civilian casualties are mount- ing. As we watch events unfold here in our own neighborhood, we are reminded that Putin has sent troops to Venezuela to prop up the illegitimate dictator Nicolas Maduro. Here in the United States, of course, Russia put its thumb on the scale during the 2016 election to support President Trump’s campaign, as Special Counsel Mueller’s report puts it, and I quote, ‘‘in sweeping and systematic fashion’’. Unquote. And Russia continues to work to fuel political division and undermine American democracy. And the largest group victimized by Russia’s harmful and de- structive policies are Russians themselves living under the tyranny of Vladimir Putin. Putin tries to silence his political opponents, (1) 2 honest journalists, and anyone else who dares to criticize his cor- rupt rule. His tools range from imprisonment to torture, to assas- sination, as the world saw in the case of Boris Nemtsov, whom I had the pleasure of meeting with right in this very building before he was brutally assassinated by Putin’s people. Putin and his thugs continue to tighten their grip on freedom of speech, expression, and access to information and economic oppor- tunity. And let me add on that note that Russia continues to hold Paul Whelan, an American citizen, under false charges of espio- nage. Russia is denying him his basic human rights and has been dragging its feet every step of the way. I renew my demand that the Russian government end this charade and release Paul Whelan back to his family. What is Russia’s aim with this unrelenting malevolence? What does Putin hope to accomplish by seizing territory, distorting re- ality, attacking democracy, and supporting tyranny? First, of course, the answer is power, both domestically and on the inter- national stage. Putin and his henchmen in the Kremlin are des- perate to keep their grip on power, whatever the costs. They need to hide the disaster that their oligarchy, kleptocracy, and corrup- tion have been for their own country. Putin simply blames outside forces for Russia’s troubles, but we all know the troubles of the Russian people are the result of Russia’s corrupt leaders. Second, Russia wants to peddle the lie that there is a better al- ternative to democracy, a better alternative to the West. Putin wants a new cold war, a new battle of ideas. He thinks he can win by supporting dictators and cozying up to the West’s adversaries, including his recent attempts to reach out to China. He is wrong, of course, but that will not stop him from trying. It is a challenge we need to take seriously, and I do not think that the Administration is doing nearly enough. We are being out- played around the world and here on our home court. We are ceding ground in Syria and across the Middle East. We are letting Russia work its will in the European energy sector. And, of course, with another Presidential race gearing up, we have not done nearly enough to shore up our own elections from Russian interference. The White House says no President has ever been tougher on Russia. I wish I could believe that. I have got to wonder why the Administration will not meet the challenge head-on. The Special Counsel said in his report that he could not establish criminal con- spiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but let’s be clear. We know the Russians offered the Trump campaign stolen informa- tion about Hillary Clinton. We know the Trump campaign was eager to receive it. We know there was contact after contact after contact between campaign officials and Russian officials, and we know that the President was working to expand his business inter- ests in Russia right up to the election. The fact that such behavior is not illegal should be a call for Congress to act. And the fact is we still do not know how deeply the President is involved with Putin. We have no idea what the President and Putin discussed at their meetings. We have no idea, and that un- derscores why this committee’s oversight and investigative work will proceed full speed ahead and why we will continue to shine a light on the real challenge that Russia poses. 3 In fact, the Ranking Member and I are working on legislation to push back on Russian aggression, protect American