A day after Crimea overwhelmingly voted to rejoin Russia in a vote criticized by the West, the focus for United States Congressional leaders is turning toward making sure Russia doesn’t push into the rest of Ukraine.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy returned from a trip to Ukraine over the weekend with a bipartisan group of eight Senators. The Democrat from Connecticut serves on the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations.
“I don’t think the end game for Russia is Crimea,” Murphy said. “Crimea is two million of Ukraine’s 45 million [people]. So holding Crimea alone simply accelerates the move of the vast majority of Ukraine into the European Union. Strategically it’s almost impossible to hold Crimea without either holding other parts of Ukraine or having a treaty with Ukraine because the gas lines, the roads and the water mains into Crimea come from Ukraine.”
Fellow Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer from New York agrees that Russia must not be allowed to go further into Ukraine.
“It’s very important also to have all the nations of the world do this,” Schumer said. “If just the U.S. had sanctions, the Russians wouldn’t care as much. We don’t have that much trade with Russia. But if Germany, France, Poland and countries like that joined in, it would make a huge difference. That’s what they’re working on.”
On Monday, President Obama announced unwavering support for Ukraine and again condemned “Russia’s decision to send troops into the country.” President Obama also said the U.S. would not recognize the Crimean vote to break off from Ukraine and join Russia. The United States and its European Union allies are imposing sanctions on Russian and Ukrainian leaders who are accused of undermining the sovereign integrity of Ukraine. Senator Murphy says the Senate is set to vote next week in favor of legislation proposed by President Obama that would give $1 billion of economic aid to Ukraine and impose further sanctions on Russia.
“I don’t even want to contemplate what we would have to consider doing if they [Russia] were to move further into Ukraine,” Murphy said. “I think Russia should be kicked out of every single international body that we have the ability to expel them from if they were to engage in a full-scale invasion.”
Murphy says Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move into Crimea was a panic reaction to Ukraine’s new government being oriented toward Europe and not Russia. Both Murphy and Schumer agree they don’t expect the U.S. to send troops to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Murphy says the Ukrainian military is in no shape to stop a Russian invasion as it has been gutted by the recently ousted government and Russian leaders. But Murphy adds the U.S. can provide communications and humanitarian aid if Russia were to cross the border, which the Senator says sees Germany as being a major player in how the situation plays out.
“The key country is Germany, Merkle,” Schumer said. “The Germans have more trade with Russia than any other country. On the one hand, they like the trade and they need gas from Russia. On the other hand, Merkle lived in East Germany under Communist rule and she knows how stultifying it could be. Furthermore, if Merkle helps take the lead she could really become the leader, geopolitically as well as economically, of Europe. I think that’s something that might matter to her.”
To truly damage the Russian economy, Murphy says sanctions should be extended to private oil and gas companies in Russia.
“That’s not easy to do for a country like Germany, but there are other sources of energy, gas and oil that they can draw from especially as we enter the leaner spring and summer months,” said Murphy.
Murphy says he recognizes sanctions will be met with a response from Russia.
“There clearly will be reciprocal actions from Russia against the United States and the European Union,” Murphy said. “But, we together, the United States and Europe, can do much more damage to Russia than they can do to us.”
