Working. This is about two hours 20 minutes. s. [inaudible conversations] the committee will come to orde order. Thank you all for coming today and for our witnesses for joining us as we examine the current state of the us russia relationship to deal with the Russian Federation. Its time to assess our relationship as we have recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of events leading to the collapse of the soviet union, fall of the berlin wal wall, solidarity selection victory in poland many former soviet states with prosperous democracies with memberships in the eu. Mister putin has taken russia down a darker path many suffer while oligarchs enrich themselves russia make sure only kremlin approved officials make the cut with those who military and organization in those outlets the russian people are inhumanely present and tortured to disagree with the government. Not only does the Russian Federation make it painful for the average russian but also makes it harder for those around the world he has meddled in american intellections sewing chaos propping up the regime of the syrian president selling arms to africa and missileDefense Systems us allies and adversaries alike and continue as people suffer in large part through russian assistance with the occupation of georgia and ukraine over the years and the russian people in london on sovereign soil. The world is more dangerous and less free because of the federation the relationship has hit a low point during the height of the cold war they ensure that neither side made a disastrous miscalculation our engagements with russia are few with a growing risk of a calculation to be clear with putin and his cronies they have been pretty tough since 2014 sanctions on dozens of companies that have been involved in the illegal takeover of crimea with the human rights abuses in russia in 2018 after russia use chemical weapons we close to russian consulates to help coordinate the undeclared russian spies the us rotates troops to poland and the enhanced polar presence in america has provided lethal and nonlethal weapons to help ukraine defend itself from russian back separatist each of these are important to the global influence however they do not form a Cohesive Strategy america including Congress Must think strategically about russia now and in the future i encourage these witnesses to discuss the current strategy toward russia and what it is intended to accomplish. We must also urge caution the administration and congress while focusing strategy on the sanctions thats not for dealing with russia but simply a tool i have serious concerns about the consequences in the absence of a larger strategy. Sanctions dont necessarily make them suffer and in the absence of concrete policy goals a well targeted sanctions bill with clear policy goal in mind and more general sanctions were not connected to specific goals and counterproductive with that coordination with european allies that are closer to russia with distance and connectivity to undermine our alliance. And in some cases when sanctions have economic consolidation these cannot be the outcomes that we want i assume that we oppose and now i yield to senator mendez. Thank you mister chairman for calling this important hearing i appreciate you doing that secretaries thank you for joining us with the administrations policy with respect to the Russian Federation before we hear from our witnesses i would like to outline five essential elements i believe should comprise our policy on the Russian Federation. First make clear that so many examples of the invasion of georgia since 2008 are simply unacceptable. They are not the norm of International Affairs the invasion of ukraine and crimea had the attempted assassination with chemical weapons on foreign soil with an attack on the 2016 election russia is clearly not a country that belongs in the g7 that is still mystifying the president refuses to defend this behavior he says the kremlin attack was a hoax repeating lies from kremlin propaganda it was ukraine that backed that actually interfered in the election. During the cold war those that unwittingly broadcast propaganda were called useful idiots regardless of what you call them today spouting kremlin lies whatever it is it does a lot of damage. Second we must implement a clear sanctions regime sanctions on russia today do not have the desired effect. Why . Because they are not serious in their implementation several mandatory provisions still go ignored i wont go through the whole list other than to point out the most egregious it has been 144 days since turkey took delivery of the Russian Air Defense system clearly a transaction and just last week it tested the system against an american f16 and american produced f16 enough is enough. Sanctions must be imposed without further delay. Any new russian sanctions must make clear the ultimate policy goals what kind of behavior we are trying to change and how sanctions can be lifted without behavioral change taking place. Increasing pressure on moscow we must have effects during the enhanced regime us Companies May no longer benefit from the russian economy american investors may no longer benefit from the russian sovereign debt market and that the sector could be impacted of course we seek to minimize these effects but the ultimate measure is how aggression impacts National Security at the end of the day that is the ultimate measure that matters. Thermal third with arms control, when russia is in compliance with the treaty seeking to extend it is great in the short and longterm russia could upload hundreds of Nuclear Weapons to the current Strategic Force the rapid expansion of the Nuclear Arsenal places the United States at a strategic disadvantage with the fundamental reconsideration of our posture for look forward to hearing your views on this today. We need to remember the plight of the russian people who live under endemic corruption straying far from traditional support from the democratic process human rights and universal values must be at the center of policies with respect to russia and we need to support our friends in europe especially those on the frontline of russian aggression the funding should be increased recently the administration decided to redirect to the border wall instead of mexican paying for the wall our closest allies bear the cost finally the american citizen who has been detained in russia since last december with the russian authorities have evidence they should charge Mister Whalen i dont believe such evidence exist and if they dont they should let him go. I am under no illusion of mother elements of russia policy that responsibility to defend this country from the threats posed by the Russian Federation is either not interested or compromised for us to stand up our security and institutions and i look forward to working with you and others on the committee with legislation toward that. We will now turn to the witnesses ambassador to pakistan lebanon and special envoy to the middle east peace in washington the Deputy Assistant secretary of state and director for Palestinian Affairs as the executive assistant to madame albright and also rank of career ambassador in his home state of new jersey. That is why he is such an exceptional public servant. Thank you very much for that and thank you Ranking Member menendez i welcome the opportunity to be here today to discuss us policy to russia under trump United States is taking consistent action against moscows attempts to undermine interest of those of our allies and partners around the world we will continue to use the tools including diplomacy to address and deter any further such threatening actions from moscow and protect the interest of america as it relates to russia. As articulated in the National Security strategy a great period of power and Competition Administration russia policy takes a realistic approach to be a resourceful competitor of the United States those hinder the ambitions we do not seek an adversarial relationship with russia they are open to cooperation and with this administration to protect the National Security and that of allies when moscow attempts to threaten them american diplomacy to russia must be backed by military power second to none and fully integrated with all instruments of power the administration has increase the Defense Budget 716 billion fy 19 to prioritize infrastructure to maintain a robust Nuclear Deterrent the systemic weakness is reflected in Foreign Policy this oligarchic regime to stifle public content illustrated by the harsh were spent response since 2011 the russian people increasingly realize the corrupt regime is either incapable of addressing their problems or make them the source russia seeks to dominate the neighborhood in ukraine it must and those obligations to encourage those steps that the president zelensky has taken to resolve the conflict in Eastern Ukraine so far we are disappointed by moscows response it isnt just an external or military wine it utilizes Digital Technology to target us and our allies from within. Including well resourced influences backed by the highest levels of the russian government in the heart of the western world to provide significant foreign assistance to europe and eurasia building resilience to an increasing pressure on russia influence while encountering you russia influence the department creates support for the Global Engagement center we have degraded his ability by imposing costs on the russian state in the oligarchy that sustains it 321 russia related individuals and entities since 2017 this serves as a warning to russian government we will not tolerate any activity to manipulate the 2020 election i confronted on russian interference of our elections in july and raise the matter with the ambassador several times likewise taking firm action of diplomatic presence a response with the staffing tab with diplomatic personnel to close for russian facilities with a nerve agent to expel those from the Russian Embassy the diplomats and other regions including the middle East South America and africa aware the actions exacerbated the military support and attack against civilians exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in venezuela pressing venezuela to withdraw for the former maduro regime so with those destabilizing policies with a serial disregard for interNational Security and arms control commitments to have another significant challenge for the policy to pursue a new era of arms control agreements congress has a Critical Role to play to provide the tools and resources to implement the strategy we are committed to working with you in this regard thank you for inviting me today i look forward to the questions of the committee. We now have doctor ford secretary for interNational Security and nonproliferation. Also delegated the authorities of the office of undersecretary for arms control and National Security. Previously serving as a senior director for weapons of mass distraction and counter proliferation of National Security council. He began Public Service in 1996 as assistant consult for the intelligence Oversight Board and several staffs Principal Deputy in the bureau of verification and compliance and a special note non Nuclear Proliferation through 2018 a senior fellow and the author of three books and a doctorate and a law degree. The floor is yours. Thank you to the committee for having us here. s secretary hale has summarized the broad sweep of our strategy and in my own testimony i would like to address these questions with respect to where i am with the undersecretary as i mentioned. And from that perspective of arms control the ongoing challenges i think its important to remember with that long background but also of notable successes over time the changes of the strategic environment from the end of the cold for it the strategic arms reduction that the arsenals come down to small fractions of what they once were. I mentioned this because its important to remember this background it is possible to make progress when the circumstances are conducive to such movements we hope to get back to such an environment and our policies are designed to make this possible as well as protect the American People and her allies but for now the security environment is very challenging russias developing extraordinary new Delivery Systems of which there are no us counterparts and likely to default outside the existing framework also with nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons and they have a larger stockpile be have and projected to expand the weapons considerably over the next decade the chairman would be familiar with the ground launch Cruise Missile with the production of that system and the unwillingness to change course in that regard and to the unhappy position to have to withdraw from the committee in the wake of those russia violations but that is only one in a broad range of the dual capability systems they have longer ranges and lower yields than before and coming online but that strategy as demonstrated with coercive and military uses russia had to still remain in compliance but in connection with most other arms control agreements and its nothing short of appalling the statement remains in chronic noncompliance and is only selectively fulfilling also the problem of chemical weapons where russia condones with the continued violations by the client state in russia itself is used chemical weapons by developing and using a military grade nerve agent of a nato ally of the United Kingdom being up to no good in the domains of conflict since cyberspace and outerspace even trying to promote hollow and disingenuous not to address the challenges that russia itself is working to create so this track record is miserable i would stress we are working to address these challenges they are as robust as they are extensive as we coordinate into a strategy to push back against Russian Mission of the National Security strategy makes it clear to take it seriously and we are doing so in the face of the National Security threat to get through this phase of political competition we must stay with the modernization to be sure our allies not only of the capacity but the willingness to go against intimidation and aggression while still keeping a good faith negotiation if we can do that you think we can stabilize the situation and that is what the policy is devoted to. Thank you mister chairman. Give me your thoughts if you would on strong opponents it has been in place as long as it has we cant talk about it in the setting of absolute compliance by the russians but from a general standpoint they are substantially more and compliance with the weapons than they ever were. By the disparity . And then to get them to comply . And with the two treaties and agreements is different than the weaponry systems quex. I would hesitate to get into putins head in this respect but they made position they wanted to have the inf treaty did not allow them to have that we would remain compliant. They were right. Absolutely correct we were compliant but certainly now we are working to try to address to meet those threats with a conventionally armed system such as the ground Cruise Missile that yes they assume we are being compliant and thought they could get away not just testing but deploying a treaty hoping we would not respond to it. Why is not a position i could guess but thats not something that they needed to but russian is developing today the development of a new Strategic Development system that is difficult to be brought in within the arms control framework we have seen mister putin brag about the new superheavy icbm development of Nuclear Power and underwater drone to be familiar with that flying chernobyl disaster of the Cruise Missile that has lethality in that area they are developing a whole range of systems most of these are not likely to fall within a new start so that leaves aside the issue of nonstrategic weapons that artie has a large arsenal so this is what they are already deciding to do outside the framework of current arms control to make sure our policy is in a position to address. Secretary hale did they interfere of the election of donald trump. Yes they assess putin aimed at the president ial election. Was the interference a hoax . Are you aware of any evidence ukraine interfered in the 2016 election quex. I am not. I appreciate doctor hills testimony before the National Security council who said that theory is a fictional narrative perpetrated and propagated by the Russian Security services themselves do you have any reason to disagree with doctor hill quex. I