US Congressmen Visit Valdai Discussion Club
Moscow, Valdai Discussion Club Conference Hall

On April 3, 2016, delegation of the U.S. House of Representatives chaired by Mr. Dana Rohrabacher visited the Valdai Club and spoke at the discussion panel.

In the beginning of the discussion Mr. Rohrabacher (Republican party) spoke about the purpose of the delegation’s visit to Moscow, which is to try to open the door to establish a working relationship between Russia and the US. He said that as this is the first Congressional delegation’s visit to Moscow in 3 years, it indicates that Russia and the United States - two of the major countries in the world - have almost a breakdown of interaction. “There are things we disagree on, there are things we agree on, but we must talk about these things and see if we can find some pathway that will be mutually beneficial to our countries”, the congressman stressed.

The situation in Ukraine was one of the main topics of discussion. According to Mr. Rohrabacher, it is very difficult for Americans to understand that this started with the overthrow of an elected government. “If Yanukovich’ elected government had not been overthrown by force, I do not believe there would be any of the problems that we face now”, he said.

He explained that those people who opposed Yanukovich policies in Ukraine should have been waiting until the next election, where Yanukovich “would certainly have been defeated” and the policies they have been concerned about would have not been implemented. “Our European allies helped instigate the overthrow of Yanukovich, which created the problem”, he added. Mr. Rohrabacher underlined that he was speaking for himself, not for the government of the United States.

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Rep. Dana Rohrabacher: US-Russia Cooperation is Key to Countering Global Threats

Mr. David Cicilline (Democratic party) stressed the importance of the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine to be respected. According to him, Ukrainian people should make their own decisions about their future, and Minsk agreement is a framework that allows to move forward.

Commenting on the possibility to deploy additional American troops in Eastern Europe, Mr. Rohrabacher said that it is “total insanity” to increase the military presence of the United States in Europe as it will be seen as a hostile act in Russia.

Mr. Brian Higgins (Democratic party) pointed out that despite the problems in economy Russia is increasing its military budget. “That is a pretty good indication to the rest of the world of what your intentions are”, he said. On his opinion, that’s probably what precipitated this move to have a greater military presence of the US in Eastern Europe.

Mr. Cicilline agreed with him that strengthening NATO make sense in the situation where Russia is building up its military in a context of a very difficult financial choices, actions in Crimea, and actions in Syria. “We intend to do our part to make sure we defend in every way the freedom of Europe to make its own decision about its own future”, he concluded.

Mr. Juan Vargas (Democratic party) added that European countries have great concerns about Russian military capabilities which were demonstrated in Syria. “I don’t think Russia has any intention of going into Europe. But they do, the Europeans do”, he said. The congressman advised Russia to have more conversations with the European states to let them know that there are no any intentions of rolling into the Baltic states or rolling into the Western Europe.

When discussing Syria, Mr. Rohrabacher stressed that it’s a very good thing that Assad is not being replaced by a radical Islamic jihadist regime and that Russian intervention perhaps prevented such replacement.

Mr. French Hill (Republican party) expressed his mutual disappointment with the American and Russian leadership, because they could not prevent the rise of ISIS in the Eastern part of Syria. According to him, both governments have very substantial responsibility. “Now there is an opportunity at least to come together and have an outcome that is hard to me to describe as a positive after 250 000 deaths and Europe now having its largest refugee crisis since World War II”, he said.

Speaking about the modern threats, Mr. Rohrabacher pointed out radical Islam. “The threat that we face today is radical Islamic terrorism, pushing radical Islamic governmental theory, which would create a caliphate that would then destroy Western civilization”, he explained. According to him, that is a threat to Russia, threat to the United States, and two countries need to cooperate on that.

He said that today Afghanistan again finds itself at the epicenter of conflict that has far-reaching geopolitical consequences. If Afghanistan becomes a radical bastion of Islamic extremism that will threaten the stability of Central Asia and will create turmoil and death in various parts of the world. The congressman underlined that Pakistan is “actually the main problem”, because the government support the radical Islam. “The United States must admit that Pakistan is no longer its friend, and the former enemy - the Soviet Union - is now Russia, which is a friend”, he said. According to Mr. Rohrabacher, Western civilization concept is under attack and this challenge should bring Russia and the US together.

In conclusion, Mr. Rohrabacher pointed out some serious challenges ahead of Russia and the US. Nuclear weapon explosion in the atmosphere “will throw the world back to the dark ages” and millions of people will die. If the meteor hit the city, it will cost hundreds of thousands lives. He believes, these are things Russia and the United States need to work together as the major powers of the world. “So there are reasons to be worried, because we face enormous challenges and there are reasons that we can have hope, because there are some major factors that we can bring into play that will make life better”, he said. The congressman concluded that “the answer is of course in our hands”.