Constitution State News

WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday spoke at a hearing on what comes next for U.S. policy towards Russia with Dr. Andrea Kendall Taylor, Senior Fellow and Director for the Center for a New American Security’s Transatlantic Security Program, and John Sullivan, former Deputy Secretary of State and Ambassador of the United States to the Russian Federation.

Murphy argued the U.S. should do more to persuade our partners who continue to help Russia evade U.S. sanctions to stop providing indirect support to the war against Ukraine: “One, we can talk about expanding our sanctions. But two, we can just talk about elevating this question of Russia lifelines with our friends. I mean, this is one of a myriad of articles you can find on this question. This is from the Center for European Policy Analysis. An article entitled ‘UAE Throws Lifeline to Beleaguered Russian Tech Sector.’ You could find similar stories about Turkey, India, countries in Central Asia. And it strikes me that this is a missed opportunity, maybe most particularly in the Gulf, where they're making individual decisions to support Russia’s sanctions evasion, but they are also helping to prop up the cost of oil in a way that allows Putin to power forward.”

On pursuing this diplomatic effort, Murphy said: “It is labor intensive, which means we need resources, which means we can't continue to ask the State Department to fight Russia with one hand tied behind its back because there are so many things that our allies, our partners could be doing, that they are not today. And our under investment in the tools of winning friends, in particular around fighting misinformation and propaganda, makes the job of our diplomats pretty difficult, which is another reason why we should be plussing up those resources so that we can win more of these fights.”

Murphy concluded: “I think the administration has done a great job of rallying our closest friends. But I do think we have to shed light on the fact that the sort of next set of friends in the next concentric circle is kind of playing China off against Russia, telling us they'll work with us on China policy, but they're not with us on Russia policy. We have to elevate this dialogue on Russian sanctions evasions with some of our important allies, not in Europe.”

A full transcript of Murphy’s exchange with Taylor and Sullivan: 

MURPHY: “Thank you both for being here. So there's a question of whether Ukraine can ultimately carry the cost of this war for as long as is necessary. And then there's this corresponding question of whether Russia can carry the cost of this war for as long as necessary. And it seems to me that we appropriately are engaged in public policy, trying to impact both sides of that coin: getting Ukraine everything it needs and trying to winnow the pathways through which Russia gets what it needs.

“You responded to a question from Senator Menendez about our sanctions regime. But there is also a set of bilateral relationships the United States has with countries that are still actively engaged with Russia, helping them either to manage or evade those sanctions regimes.

“And so there's two things at play here. One, we can talk about expanding our sanctions. But two, we can just talk about elevating this question of Russia lifelines with our friends. I mean, this is one of a myriad of articles you can find on this question. This is from the Center for European Policy Analysis. An article entitled ‘UAE Throws Lifeline to Beleaguered Russian Tech Sector.’ You could find similar stories about Turkey, India, countries in Central Asia. And it strikes me that this is a missed opportunity, maybe most particularly in the Gulf, where they're making individual decisions to support Russia’s sanctions evasion, but they are also helping to prop up the cost of oil in a way that allows Putin to power forward.

“So just a word on how you view our bilateral relationships with countries that are still helping Russia fund this war and why it's, I hope you believe, it's important to elevate this as a priority and those bilateral relationships. I put this to you, Ms. Taylor.”

TAYLOR: “Yes, so I think the sanctions evasion is a big piece. But I think the important thing to think about with all of these different countries is that they all have very disparate interests. They're continuing to support Russia, often for very different reasons. India because they have this long military sales relationship. Some for historical reasons. Some because they don't want to be drawn into the U.S.- China confrontation. And so as you noted, I think working it through bilateral channels is a critical way to go.

“India, for example, this is an excellent opportunity to step in - the United States, France, some of our allies - to try to wean India away from its defense sales. It's not going to happen overnight, but it is an important opportunity that we can exploit and take advantage of.

“So I guess the bottom line is, we've been talking about the role of diplomacy, arms sales, working it through the sanctions channels. There’s a number of different components and opportunities and pathways that the United States could pursue in these bilateral relationships. But I agree, one of the goals of our policy should be to grow the coalition of countries that oppose Russia. That will be needed, especially if we are talking about this as a protracted conflict. So that should be one of the explicit priorities of U.S. policy on Russia is to grow the number of countries and figuring out those issues where our interests overlying their specific relationships with Russia and how we can exploit them, I think should be a central focus.”

MURPHY: “Anything on this question, Mr. Sullivan?”

SULLIVAN: “Yes, I agree. First of all, with you, Senator, and with Dr. Kendall Taylor. It’s labor intensive. We need to push the message out to all our posts worldwide. All of those countries, I'm focused on the 141 that voted for the resolution in the General Assembly, more than half of them have done nothing to implement that resolution. In fact, many of them keep trading with Russia. We've got the almost 40 that abstained. We need to be using all the tools and they it may vary from country to country.

“Egypt, for example, making sure that the Egyptians don't sell military equipment to the Russians and do sell equipment to the Ukrainians. So it's labor intensive, it needs to be tailored to the particular countries.”

MURPHY: “And this comes back to Senator Menendez’s original point. It is labor intensive, which means we need resources, which means we can't continue to ask the State Department to fight Russia with one hand tied behind its back because there are so many things that our allies, our partners could be doing, that they are not today. And our under investment in the tools of winning friends, in particular around fighting misinformation and propaganda, makes the job of our diplomats pretty difficult, which is another reason why we should be plussing up those resources so that we can win more of these fights.

“Listen, I think the administration has done a great job of rallying our closest friends. But I do think we have to shed light on the fact that the sort of next set of friends in the next concentric circle is kind of playing China off against Russia, telling us they'll work with us on China policy, but they're not with us on Russia policy. We have to elevate this dialogue on Russian sanctions evasions with some of our important allies, not in Europe.

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”

Original source can be found here