The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“UKRAINE AND IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H8184-H8187 on Oct. 16, 2019.
The State Department is responsibly for international relations with a budget of more than $50 billion. Tenure at the State Dept. is increasingly tenuous and it's seen as an extension of the President's will, ambitions and flaws.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
UKRAINE AND IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2019, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the people of Russia have never known real freedom.
During the 20th century, over the course of 70 years, Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union's henchman and regime leader, and that of his successors were responsible for the brutal murder of millions upon millions of innocent people inside Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and many other Central and Eastern European countries that became familiarly known as the Captive Nations.
During World War II, American soldiers never really made it east of Germany when they liberated camps in Germany, and so much of the truth about what happened behind what was called the Iron Curtain, the edge of Soviet rule, was largely unknown to the West.
Russia's wretched rule included:
Forced famine, starving millions of her own people to gain the acquiescence of others;
Gulags, where individuals were sent to work in work camps and died. They died of starvation. They died of overwork. They died of disease;
Genocide, the wiping out of ethnic groups that didn't fit the perfect image of the ruler of Russia;
Ethnic cleansing and a horrific world war launched in collaboration with Nazi Germany, where Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divided up Europe as they saw fit.
Not all Europeans have experienced the same history. I am interested to read some press reports now about Eurocentric people. Well, let me tell you, the history of Nazi Germany and the history of occupied Ukraine or occupied Poland are completely different.
There was little value for human life by the Soviet regime and, certainly, no value for liberty.
Americans remember, some do, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 after the free world had labored since 1946 to allow that moment to happen and the hope that it brought to millions of subjugated people beyond that Iron Curtain who dreamed of a better way of life--not only across Europe, but, in fact, the entire world.
The fall of the Berlin Wall was symbolic, and its anniversary is celebrated this year, 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall that ushered in a new order, a world that said liberty could still prevail over tyranny, even in the face of impossible odds in some of the most forgotten places in the world.
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Images of East and West Germans ascending the old Berlin Wall that divided freedom from tyranny stood as that symbol. And those individuals who had lived in West Germany and East Germany who climbed that wall and met for the first time in decades serves as one of the most powerful symbols of freedom in human history.
As families were reunited, new democratic institutions rose from the ashes, where tyranny once dominated.
The United States became a beacon of light to those people in an ever-growing free world following the rebuilding of Europe in the post-
World War II climate and then, over four decades later, the Soviet Union's demise.
The World War II Memorial that stands here in Washington, D.C., in fact, is testimony to the 20th century's greatest achievement, the victory of liberty over tyranny.
Yet, in the ashes of the Soviet regime, the seeds of tyranny survived in the memories of its most ardent lieutenants and supporters. And one of them, the current Russian President, Vladimir Putin, who for years served as a Soviet spy in the KGB, is orchestrating Russia's vengeful march to restore its former empire.
Today, Ukraine represents the scrimmage line in the fight for liberty on the European continent. And why does it matter to America? Because those allies in Europe have democratic republics like ours. They are our closest political allies on the face of the Earth.
We do not live alone on this Earth. America does not live alone on this Earth, but, rather, we have a security system that was established following World War II that has held together the leaders of the free world.
Vladimir Putin's greatest fear is an economically successful and democratic Ukraine at Russia's borders. A free Ukraine would undermine Putin's fragile, corrupt rule based on stealing--stealing land, stealing money from the people of Ukraine, and lining his pockets and those of his cronies.
A free Ukraine sends a message, too, to the Russian people, a people who have never known liberty in their own right, that freedom is also attainable for them.
For this reason, Putin would go to any length, and is--
assassinations, poisonings, war, torture--to steal from the Ukrainian people their right to choose their own destiny--40 million people--40 million people at the stepstone to all of Europe, the largest landmass nation in all of Europe. They have a right to choose their own destiny.
In the aftermath of World War II, the United States, alongside our allied partners in the then newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organization, more familiarly called NATO, created precious institutions to build solidarity and security among the war's transatlantic allied victors--institutions that had never existed before.
America invested trillions of dollars in programs, beginning with the Marshall Plan, to build vigilant networks to stymie and, ultimately, reverse the spread of state-imposed communism.
The American people, in a very war-worn country after World War II, rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan. Wow.
Western-funded programs worked to rebuild Europe, and, though the Nazis were defeated, millions still found themselves trapped under dictatorial rule behind that Iron Curtain east of the Berlin Wall.
Ukraine was one of those nations forced to exist under Soviet occupation until Ukrainian citizens declared their own independence after the fall of the Berlin Wall in a democratic, nationwide referendum in 1991, the only such referendum by any former Soviet republic.
An astounding 84 percent of their voting-age population participated in that referendum, and more than 90 percent of them voted to separate from the Soviet Union and chart their own national course.
That was a new page that turned in world history. Even in the eastern portions of Ukraine, in Crimea, a majority voted to be part of independent Ukraine. In one voice, the Ukrainian people decisively voted for and favored liberty over tyranny. What a dramatic moment in world history as liberty attempted to move eastward.
But, even then, the struggle for liberty in Ukraine was far from over. It was only beginning. And we can see it in real time even until today.
In 2014, the Ukrainian people rose up in the Ukrainian revolution of dignity against leaders in Ukraine that had become utterly corrupt, the pro-Russian leader then, President Viktor Yanukovych, after he rejected--why did they rise up? Because he rejected an association agreement with the European Union.
And at whose behest did he do that? Vladimir Putin's.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian protesters immediately moved to occupy the central plaza of their capital city, Kiev, Ukraine. Clashes between those protesters and the riot police became violent and resulted in the deaths of nearly 130 civilians. Most of them died from government-ordered sniper fire.
As tensions rose, Yanukovych fled--guess where?--to Russia to take cover. And, on that same day, by a vote of 328-0, their congress, their parliament, voted that Yanukovych be removed from office.
The fight for liberty is being lived in real time. The world can see it--not just the Ukrainian people; the American people, the leader of the free world, for heavens' sake.
In that very same year, Vladimir Putin mobilized Russia's vast military machine, one of the largest on Earth, to illegally and without provocation invade Ukraine at its Crimean edge and launch a not-so-
covert war on Ukraine's eastern flank, a clear effort to rewind history and reimpose his dreamed neo-Soviet empire.
Over 5 years later, Ukraine remains in an heroic struggle to preserve its hard-fought freedom and sovereignty. Its people have bravely faced down artillery barrages and live sniper and machine gun fire carried out by pro-Russian forces coming across the border, including Putin's little green men.
While the country, Ukraine, is not yet a member of the European Union or NATO, which it so wishes to be, its men and women, including civilians, have bravely fought and died defending Europe and their own fragile democracy.
Put yourselves in their position. What would you do if that happened in the United States of America?
In the 5 years since the war started, 14,000 Ukrainians have been killed, 30,000 have been wounded, and nearly 2 million internally displaced in the conflict with Russia.
It is a war that groans on with little notice but enormous consequences for liberty in this modern era.
As Ukraine's defense forces crumbled due to years of corruption and mismanagement, the Ukrainian people took up the cause to defend their own nation. They have been seriously underequipped. And their heroism and, I might add, sheroism shines. Courageous women from the invisible battalion left their college studies and took taxis to the frontlines to thwart Moscow's war.
It was like a David and Goliath struggle. Indeed, it has been the strength of the Ukrainian people that has fought Russia to a standstill for a moment.
Just as we and our allies fought Soviet aggression in the 20th century, the Ukrainian people are in the trenches fighting Russian aggression in the 21st.
They have more than earned the respect and continuing support of the United States and the free world.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, one-third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal remained in Ukraine. There are two countries in the world that have nuclear weapons aimed: Russia, at us; and the United States, prepared to take them down if they would ever dare send them in this direction.
But one-third of what the Soviet Union held in terms of nuclear strength remained in Ukraine, de facto providing Ukraine the world's third largest nuclear weapons arsenal.
But, in 1994, by signing the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agreed to give up the nuclear weapons in its territory in return for security assistance by the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Think about that.
A promise was made. Ukraine's independence, national sovereignty, and borders would be respected. By annexing Crimea and waging a devastating war on the eastern side of Ukraine called the Donbas, Russia has severely violated the terms of this foundational security agreement.
Lest we forget, Russia retained its nuclear arsenal, and their weapons remain aimed at us, the United States of America, and our NATO allies in Europe.
The list of violations goes on. The basket one provisions of the Helsinki Accords, which the Soviet Union signed in 1975, along with the United States, Canada, and more than 30 European countries, as well as bilateral agreements that the Russian Federation signed with Ukraine in 1997, have effectively been thrown to the wayside.
In addition, Russia's forcible annexation of Crimea and sponsorship of a hot war in Ukraine's east since 2014 violates numerous United Nations agreements that Russia, the Ukraine, the United States, and other countries have signed going back to the organization's founding in 1945.
While it would be convenient to only blame Russia for the destabilization of this region, I must say, President Trump's recent illegal block of more than $391 million in military aid to Ukraine was not only a blow to Ukrainian security and to its new president, but to our own.
Russia on the march does not serve the security interests of the United States. The United States and NATO have a vital interest in stopping the Kremlin's aggression in Ukraine. That Trump did so, in denying military assistance, in delaying military assistance to Ukraine, in pursuit of a personal political agenda for 2020, makes it not only a betrayal of U.S. security interests but, also, a legal issue.
It looks like just the sort of perversion of the justice system that Ukraine has suffered for decades.
To date, there are no records detailing President Trump's or his administration's official secret meetings and phone calls with Russian President Putin and his top lieutenants. There is no documentation to date on why President Trump lifted sanctions on key Putin oligarchs and supporters.
If records exist, they, I hope, have not been unlawfully squirreled away somewhere by senior White House staff, similar to actions alleged in the September 2019 whistleblower complaint.
It is clear that Putin has been at war with Ukraine to restore its domination in that neighborhood. The United States should do nothing to make it easier. Tragically, it appears President Trump is accommodating and, perhaps, abetting him.
It is no wonder that our current the President was Putin's preferred candidate in 2016 and remains so for 2020.
Now, Paul Manafort, President Trump's 2016 campaign manager, sits in Federal prison right now for tax evasion, but his crimes are much worse.
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He took millions of dollars, millions of dollars to lobby for the pro-Russian, anti-American, Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, who he mentioned earlier, whose own people drove him out the country.
Yanukovych personally took his orders from Putin, who personally directed Russia's interference in U.S. elections and ordered the war in Ukraine.
Take Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer. He has been carrying out a shadow foreign policy campaign, at the Trump administration's behest, to undermine their political rivals and boost the President's reelection.
Recently, it was confirmed that Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, turned to Manafort, who is sitting in jail, for advice in his efforts to fabricate falsehoods on Vice President Joe Biden. The President and Giuliani even enlisted the support of U.S. Government officials in this scheme, co-opting U.S. taxpayer dollars for personal political gain.
When the United States Ambassador to Ukraine refused to aid and abet their plot, President Trump purged the highly respected U.S. Ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, who dutifully served our country with distinction throughout her adult life. During her service, Ukraine successfully carried out two democratic elections during a time of war and significant duress and made enormous progress on its anticorruption efforts.
Ambassador Yovanovitch's steady and principled vision, steeped in a long tradition of U.S. diplomatic excellence, was exactly what was needed to shepherd the Ukrainian people along the jagged path toward democratic reform.
Ambassador Yovanovitch represented the United States at the highest levels of her career in other countries facing similar challenges--
Armenia, for one, and Kyrgyzstan--under Republican and Democratic administrations. She served Presidents in both parties. It is, indeed, rare for a member of the Foreign Service to serve as an ambassador, let alone three times in very dangerous places. This is a true testament to her diplomatic seasoning, from which I believe our President could learn something.
Tragically, the purging of Ambassador Yovanovitch is but the surface of the contempt that this White House and some of my Republican Congressional colleagues have treated public servants who place their lives at risk serving the American people's love of liberty, day in and day out.
President Trump, let the record show, who dodged service in the U.S. military, seems to have no understanding of the value of our transatlantic alliances and at what cost they have been won and built. They are the single most important guarantor of our security and freedom. America needs friendly allies who share our democratic values and believe in the rule of law.
Recently, we have learned that while the Trump-appointed U.S. Ambassador to the European Union should have been focused on repairing relations with Europe, as our own President has embarrassed European Presidents and leaders publicly, the Ambassador to the European Union found himself in Ukraine, arranging meetings to conduct opposition research on President Trump's political opponents.
It cannot be overstated just how much the actions of our President and Rudy Giuliani have undermined U.S. strategic interests and the progress Ukraine has made to strengthen its democracy and deter Russian aggression.
Imagine how the young new President of Ukraine felt when the President of the United States said to him that the military aid that was due to have been dispensed in the middle of this summer from the United States would actually be held until that President would do our President a favor related to his own reelection. Wow.
For the Trump-led minions, our government does not serve the people. Rather, unfortunately, it is serving him.
While we continue to seek cooperation with the Trump administration to help our own people here at home in so many ways--the cost of prescription drugs, trying to get an infrastructure bill passed in the House and the Senate, trying to deal with corruption in our own political system--Congress must investigate these deeply troubling episodes abroad. The Constitution demands that we conduct our affairs in a constitutionally mandated role of oversight and the impeachment inquiry, which is ongoing. We must ascertain to what extent the President and his advisers abused their power and held up critical military aid to Ukraine for their own political gain.
Thus far, the President's defense has been complete resistance, not providing the materials necessary for a full congressional investigation in what seems to be an ongoing campaign to intimidate State Department officials from testifying before Congress, which really means before the American people.
The American people have a right to know the truth. This is an open society. We don't need stonewalling from this administration.
We should ask the President what he has to hide. The American people know the difference between truth and fiction.
Mr. Speaker, what a historic defeat for liberty it would be if the West were to squander the sacrifices of the United States, Ukraine, and our allies by allowing Putin to succeed in his sinister mission.
Despite President Trump's negligence, the United States Congress remains laser-focused on the threat from Russia. It is serious, and it is real.
While Ukraine fights for its very existence, the United States Congress and freedom-lovers everywhere must continue to support Ukraine through military aid, programs to fight corruption, and the development of civil society, which the American people do so well.
Congress must get to the bottom of President Trump's effort to withhold vital defense aid to Ukraine. She is facing a mortal enemy. This is liberty at stake in our lifetimes. Will we meet the challenge?
The abuses of power outlined in the whistleblower complaint underscore the danger that President Trump's decisions pose to American national security and democracy itself. The American people must learn to what extent the President solicited interference from a foreign country in the upcoming 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
From our own FBI, we have learned how many times Russia interfered in the last election and how many times then-candidate Trump contacted Russia during the campaign.
I was thinking about that one night. If I were running for President of the United States, would I be in touch with Russia nearly 200 times? Think about that. How unusual is that?
The American Presidency cannot be a tool for Russia to gain its insidiously destructive power. Above all, the American people deserve liberty first, last, and always in a political system free of malign foreign influence.
Long live a free America, and may the people of Ukraine ultimately gain the freedom they so justly deserve.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
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