Political Quotes

“I think the Senator is spot-on. Right now, Putin is looking at whether or not he proceeds in Eastern Ukraine. He is looking at Transnistria and Moldova. He is calculating and he is calculating: What are the costs? What will the United States and the European Union do? From my perspective, President Putin only understands strength, and that strength is either in a military context--which, of course, no one is speaking about at this moment--or an economic one. That is why this package is so incredibly important--because it takes every single dimension that the distinguished Senator helped us in the committee on. It aids Ukraine up front for the loan guarantee. It sanctions--and the Senator was very engaged in several elements of that--elements of the Russian hierarchy for engaging in corrupting the country, Ukraine, and at the same time for invading its territorial integrity. It prepares assistance for that election which is supposed to take place in May that is critical to be fair, open, and transparent and, at the same time, provides for the greater resources through the IMF. So all of these elements are critical. It also includes a very clear statement about greater defense cooperation, which is also critically important. So these are all the elements of sending a strong message, as Putin is calculating: What will be the cost? If the cost is not high enough, he may very well proceed into Eastern Ukraine or to those parts of Moldova.…”