Prepared Floor
Remarks by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
On the Anniversary
of President Biden’s Russia Reset Announcement
Monday, February
8, 2021
Twelve years ago this past Sunday, then Vice President
Biden was in Munich to deliver the Obama administration’s first major foreign
policy speech to world leaders.
He said, “It is time to press the reset button and to
revisit the many areas where we can and should be working together with Russia.”
The premise was that the Bush administration had been too
tough on Russia and a more conciliatory approach was needed.
Beyond the rhetoric, this involved abruptly scrapping planned
missile defense cooperation with our allies the Czechs and Poles on the
anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland.
Keep in mind, this was six months after Russia had
invaded and occupied territory of our ally, the Republic of Georgia, an
occupation that is still ongoing today.
It was a year after the publication of the book, The New Cold War by Edward Lucas
detailing the dangerous nature of the Putin regime.
The Russia reset was not just a failure, it was ill-conceived
and counterproductive from the start.
Putin’s Russia, like the Soviet Union before, only
understands strength.
Unilateral concessions actually encourage further
aggression, like we saw with Ukraine.
I appreciate now President Biden’s more recent tough talk
on Russia. I like his rhetoric better than many things President Trump said.
However, I like Trump’s actions, like sanctions against
the Nord Stream Pipeline, arming and training the Ukrainian military, and partnering
with our frontline allies.
The Biden administration no longer talks of a Russian
reset. But, it has already announced the extension of one legacy of the reset
policy.
The New START treaty with Russia gutted important
monitoring and verification measures that were included in the predecessor
agreement.
President Reagan famously quoted a Russian proverb,
“Trust, but verify” when he was negotiating with Mikhail Gorbachev.
New START cut out the verify part, leaving only trust. But,
surely we have all learned by now that we cannot trust Vladimir Putin.
He has been caught red handed violating other arms
control treaties.
Extending the New START treaty without trying to improve
it is a missed opportunity.
I hope President Biden’s future actions more closely match
his words and he scraps all vestiges of the Obama Russia reset policy he
announced twelve years ago.