WASHINGTON — Expert witnesses told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation on Wednesday about aggression by the Putin regime against Ukraine and other neighbors of the Russian Federation.

Chairman Ron Johnson and members of the subcommittee heard testimony from former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, now an advisor to President Poroshenko of Ukraine, Garry Kasparov, a Russian pro-democracy leader and the chairman of the International Council at the Human Rights Foundation,  Dr. Stephen Blank, an expert on Russia at the American Foreign Policy Council, Damon Wilson, the executive vice president of the Atlantic Council, and Steven Pifer, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. The hearing was titled, “Russian Aggression in Eastern Europe: Where Does Putin Go Next After Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova?”

The hearing, said Johnson, was about “making sure that we, here in America, fully understand how dire the situation truly is.” Saakashvili, who was president when his country was invaded by Russia in 2008, gave compelling testimony. “The road-markers of Putin's reign are the gravestones of his critics and opponents,” he stated in written testimony. “His years in power can be measured by the rollback of federalization, rights, freedom, and opportunity. Every marker we can think of in his timeline is about increasing control of Russia and the Russian-speaking world.”      

“What prompted Vladimir Putin to stop advancing into Georgia” in 2008, Johnson later asked Saakashvili.  “What really had stopped them was the United States proclaiming a military and humanitarian operation,” Saakashvili replied. He said the movement of American forces into the region deterred the Russian regime. “Putin, at that moment, blinked first,” he said.   

“Putin and his elites believe that after 15 years of power there is nothing they cannot do, no line they cannot cross,” said Kasparov. He went on to urge senators, “Stop treating Putin like any other leader who can be negotiated with in good faith. Stop legitimizing his brutal regime at the expense of the Russian people. The opposition movement Boris [Nemtsov] and I believed in and that Boris died for should also be openly supported, the way the West championed the Soviet dissidents.”   

Full video of the hearing can be found here. 

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