Russia

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, on this day in 1949, the Russian-Soviet regime occupying the Baltic countries rounded up 95,000 people, mostly women and children, and sent them to Siberia.

During Stalin's rule, more than 220,000 innocent people were deported to cold Siberia. This doesn't even include political prisoners sent to the gulag camps.

This day is observed by those Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania by lighting candles in the memory of these deportees.

The reason the Soviets did this is pretty simple: They wanted to crush civil society in newly occupied areas because they took over the Baltic countries in 1940.

The ultimate goal was to eliminate Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian national identity entirely, replacing it with, of course, a Soviet- Russian identity. The Soviets did not succeed in this effort.

Now, you may not remember this from history, but the United States never recognized the illegal Soviet occupation of these three Baltic States.

Now, the people of those three countries kept the flame of freedom alive by quietly telling their children the truth about how their countries were once free and independent.

Then, when the Soviet empire showed signs of weakness, their desire for freedom burst forth in what is called the Singing Revolution. It got the name because of the use of national songs banned by the Soviet, and this, by singing it, was their means of protest.

Fifty years of brutal Soviet occupation could not extinguish the flames of freedom and all Baltic countries are again free and prosperous and these three countries happen to be among the most pro- American allies.

I wonder if we can learn a lesson because we know that when Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, he has since kidnapped about 20,000 young people from Ukraine and taken them to Russia to ``Russiafy'' them, I guess you would say.

We don't hear enough of that. We ought to be reminded of what the Soviets did after World War II, and it seems like the world has not learned a lesson or Putin wouldn't get away with his kidnapping of 20,000 children to take them to Russia from Ukraine.

We should not allow this to continue, and the United States of America ought to be very cautious in any dealings with an international war criminal as Putin has been so condemned.

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