The Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Floor Speech

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the Russians are invading Ukraine. I think a history lesson is in order.

I take you back to 1938. Adolph Hitler annexes a neighbor, Austria. Just took them. Took them over. The West, the world, the freedom-loving people watched. He got away with that. He took them over because he wanted to, in his statement, unify the German-speaking peoples.

That was in March of 1938. Then in October of 1938, Adolph Hitler just decided that he wanted part of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, saying the same thing, that German-speaking people were being persecuted and that he wanted to help them, and he annexed the Sudetenland.

The West really agreed to that. We have heard about the appeasement of Chamberlain. Agreed to it, waived his paper, peace in our time. Not long after that, Hitler decided he wanted more Czechoslovakia. Then he invaded Poland, and then World War II started, and he invaded other countries. That was in the beginning of 1938.

Now take you to today. Vladimir Putin, Russia. He invades the Republic of Georgia, and he did so in August of 2008, and he took one-third of the country.

I happened to be in the Republic of Georgia shortly after the Russians invaded. I saw the Russian tanks on the horizon. Remember, Mr. Speaker, Putin invaded Georgia, took one-third of the land, and the Russians are still there. The world just moved on.

The Georgians are trying to figure out some way to deal with Putin's imperialistic attitude, but the Russians were there, are there--no consequences for that action.

Now that brings us to March of 2014. Of course, Georgia as we all know was a former Soviet Republic. Now Putin has his eyes on another former Soviet Republic, Ukraine. The Russian military, even though they went in with unmarked uniforms, just decided to move in and take over part of Ukraine--Crimea. That is the latest activity.

This is similar to what Adolf Hitler did back in the thirties and the forties. So, yes, Putin is similar to Adolph Hitler in that he has this appetite for other people's land, and he tries to justify it some way and he just waits to see if anybody is going to do anything about it.

This is a photograph taken by the Associated Press, Mr. Speaker, and it is some Ukrainian women that are holding up signs. Here is a photograph of Adolph Hitler over here on the far right. They are holding a sign. This is a Russian flag with a swastika in the middle. Here is another poster being held up showing the Russian flag, comparing Putin to Hitler and the Nazis' quest and their appetite to take other people's sovereign land.

I think the analogy is in order. I think the world should understand that Putin has it somewhere in his brain that he can just, on his own, justify the taking of other people's sovereign land. I think it is important that we recognize the obvious. And what we will do about it, we shall see.

When the Russians moved into Georgia, I personally don't think much happened to the world, other than the Georgians didn't complain too much. So the Russians understood that they could do it and get away with it, Putin did. Six years later, deja vu, it is all over again. He believes that he can get away with the invading of sovereign nations because of this reason: these nations, to some extent, depend on Russia for their energy, including, specifically, natural gas.

The Kremlin is working to reestablish its empire by bullying countries like Ukraine, its neighbor who broke away from the Soviet Union years ago but never was quite able to get away from the influence and intimidation of Putin.

Russia has used its competitive advantage to maintain a stronghold over Eastern Europe and the European states that were formerly aligned to the Soviet Union. This is my opinion: that Russia--Putin--has its goal to try to rebring in those former Soviet Republics under the sphere of influence of Russia under some new name. That is my opinion. It looks like they have already started this.

Seventy percent of the gas that goes to Ukraine comes from Russia. Six nations in the European Union rely on Russia for 100 percent of their natural gas.

Much of Europe relies on the Kremlin for natural gas, although they don't get 100 percent of their gas from them.

So you have got Europe, the former Soviet Republics, and Ukraine depending on energy, natural gas, from Russia. The Russians know that. Reliance on the Russian gas shapes the foreign policy of Eastern European countries, Western European countries, and especially the former Soviet Republics, and jeopardizes, I think, political and economic reforms.

Russia understands the stranglehold and the monopoly. They can get away with the bullying because they are the source of natural gas. Two times in the last 10 years, for political reasons, they have been punished economically--that is, the Ukrainians--by the Russians turning off the gas.

I happened to be in the Ukraine when the Russians turned off the gas one winter. Mr. Speaker, it gets cold in the Ukraine without heat. The Russians did that to make sure that the Ukrainians, I believe, come around and support Russian politics.

This past weekend, the Russians warned that the Ukrainians were not going to be able to continue to get some kind of discounted rate unless they reinstated the former Ukrainian President. They are blackmailing the Ukrainians. They want a president different than the one the Russians support.

So we can change that. People back home in Texas, like most Americans, don't think it is legal or right for the Russians to invade another country and just start moving in and taking over, but they ask this question: What are we going to do about it?

Remember, back when Hitler was in charge, it took a while for the West to react--and finally had to react militarily. Maybe we should try to react sooner and not have to react militarily, and we should do it economically.

The way to do that, I believe, is to give the Ukrainians, the former Soviet Republics, and Eastern and Western Europe an alternative to being held hostage by Putin because of their energy issues and the lack of natural gas and the lack of having an alternative.

Where should they look? They should look to the United States, and the United States should look to helping out these countries. Also, it would help us economically. We should be ready and eager to export our abundant natural gas to our European friends.

I think very few people in the energy industry would have believed 5 years ago that the United States would have so much natural gas that we would be able to export it; that we can produce it in such an efficient and clean way that we can export it to foreign countries. This is an opportunity to do so, and we should do so.

There is an ice cream company down in Texas that makes the best ice cream in the world. It is Blue Bell Ice Cream from Brenham, Texas. Their slogan is:

We eat all we can and we sell the rest.

That should be our slogan with natural gas. We use all we can in the United States and we sell the rest.

Who should we sell it to? We could start with these Eastern European Nations that are being intimidated by the Russians. We should help them economically, but also help the United States, and we should start with the Ukrainians.

An abundant and steady supply of natural gas exported from the United States would be beneficial to our allies, Eastern Europe, and let the world know that they are not going to be held hostage by the kleptocratic Kremlin any longer.

We can export natural gas in several ways. That debate has already taken place here in the House of Representatives and in the Department of Energy about whether or not we should or could export natural gas, setting aside the Ukrainian issue.

I think that we should. We have that opportunity. It is something that we can do to relieve the pressure of the intimidation by Putin and his attitude about moving in and taking over other people's property. The demand is there in Europe and the supply is overwhelming in the United States. The only thing that stands in the way is our own government.

So what do we do about that?

For the first time in our history, we can export natural gas to foreign countries. The United States has so much, we could not use all of it in our lifetime. It is beneficial to the United States to sell natural gas abroad. It will create jobs in the United States. It will create an income. It will make us--and we have heard this phrase since we were children--``energy independent'' by using natural gas, but also by selling it to our allies and our friends. The only thing that is stopping it, as I mentioned, is bureaucratic red tape.

It is ironic we talked about the year 1938. In 1938, Congress passed a law that required that any company that wanted to export natural gas had to get approval from the Department of Energy. That is in addition to the other permitting requirements that are required by FERC.

Over the last 70 years, this bureaucratic requirement that began in 1938, ironically, was hardly noticed anywhere in the United States because we were importing natural gas into the United States. By exporting, the United States can now become the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.

So technology has changed and we have an abundant amount of natural gas here in our own country. We can update the 1938 law and dismantle the bureaucratic roadblocks and take the Department of Energy out of the export license-granting process altogether. I think this country should be supporting and not stonewalling the development of this valuable resource. We can do that by legislation.

I have introduced legislation today, in fact, that would have the Department of Energy expedite the approval process for exporting natural gas to the Ukraine, former Soviet Republics, and to Europe. Let's get on with it.

Sure, it will take some time to get all of the logistics set up so we can actually send it to these countries, but we should help them. We should give them an alternative. We can do it on an economically good basis for these countries and for the United States. We can encourage folks to look to the West, as many of the Ukrainians already do, and give them an alternative.

The second thing that we can do to let the Russians know that we don't really approve of Putin moving into other people's countries--just like Hitler moved into other people's countries--is to look at it diplomatically, in the sense that until the Russians move out of somebody else's land--the Ukrainians--they shouldn't be getting any diplomatic visas into the United States. You stay out of the United States. You respect the international rule of law. Don't be an aggressor nation. Come into the world community of non-aggressing nations, like Russia says they are.

So there should be some consequences for this activity of invading other countries. What are the consequences? No visas for Russian diplomats to come to the United States. That is a good place to start. Meanwhile, let's approve exporting natural gas to the former Soviet Republics.

So I have introduced two bills that would do both of these things. They are something we can do immediately. Let the Ukrainians know that they have a friend in the United States, and we really do believe in supporting freedom and letting a nation itself figure out what they want to do, who they want to rule over them. Let them figure out that process.

It is difficult, and they disagree, as I am speaking tonight, on what course they should take, but let them decide, not let the Russians force them into becoming another puppet of Putin.

I hope we can move this legislation as fast as we possibly can.

And that's just the way it is.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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