-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to talk about just a few subjects briefly today, in no particular order. I want to talk first about Russia and the war with Ukraine.
Now, regardless of how you feel about the war in Ukraine, I think most fairminded people can agree on two things. No. 1, Vladimir Putin, who runs Russia--not the people of Russia but their leadership--is a thug. He is empowered. He has blood under his fingernails. He can't be trusted. The second thing that I think most fairminded Americans can agree on is that we would all like to see the war ended.
President Trump has tried, and, frankly, President Putin has treated our President--as I have said before on the Senate floor, Putin has treated our President like President Trump has taken the bullet train to chump town. He says all the right things when he talks to our President, and then he does the opposite. I think he has disrespected America--``he'' meaning President Putin--and I think he has disrespected President Trump. I think Ukraine is willing to negotiate a reasonable settlement, but it takes two to tango, and we are not going to have a settlement until President Putin decides it is in his best interest to stop the war, not in Russia's best interest because I don't think he cares about his people. I think the war will stop when Putin thinks it is in his best interest, and I don't think he is going to think it is in his best interest until he feels the pressure because dealing with Putin is like dealing with most tyrants: It is like hand- feeding a shark. You can't reason with them. You have to make them feel the pain.
A lot of people think of Russia and think of Putin as this gigantic country with a lot of wealth and power, and that is not really the case. Yes, they have nuclear weapons, but, actually, the Russian economy is pretty small. The Russian economy--for example, the European economy is about $50 trillion. That is their GDP. The Russian economy is only about $2 trillion. New York State, in America, has a bigger economy than Russia, and I think we need to keep that in mind. Russia's economy is also not terribly diversified. It is mostly oil. Putin relies on oil revenues for about a third of his budget.
Now, why am I saying all this? Because the Russian economy is not in great shape. They are spending almost all of their money--about 7 percent of their GDP--to fuel their war machine. The Russian economy wasn't that great, frankly, to begin with. If you sit down and just look at the numbers and the statistics, you will see that, with the Russian economy, at one point, inflation was through the roof. At one point, I think they had 21 percent inflation. I think, if you look at the Russian economy, you will see that many of the commentators in Russia think that--and this is coming from the Russian commentators, not from others. They think that Russia might be on the verge of going into a recession. If you look at the numbers coming out of Russia, you will see that manufacturing in Russia is declining. You will see a lot of the consumers--people, ordinary people in Russia--tightening their belts. Inflation, which I alluded to, remains high, and the Russian budget is strained.
The price of oil is down. Remember, I said Putin depends on oil for about 30 percent to a third of his revenue, and the price of oil is down. Their growth model in Russia--their model of sustenance--is based on the war, and they are starting to feel the effects of that. For example, in the first quarter of this year, the Russian GDP grew 1.4 percent. You might be thinking: Well, that is not bad. It is not great, but it is not bad. In the fourth quarter of 2024, though, if you look at the numbers, the Russian economy grew 4.5 percent. So, clearly, it is slowing.
Once again, remember, I said the Russian economy is based on oil. Why is it slowing? Well, No. 1, the price of oil is down. We know that. No. 2, Russia is spending all of its money fighting the war with Ukraine, which has hurt other parts of its economy.
The point I am trying to make is, when you are dealing with a tyrant like Putin and you are trying to bring him to the negotiating table, what you have to do is get him down and choke him, and the way to get President Putin down and choke him is through his cashflow. Putin--and, remember, I am not talking about the good people in Russia. I am talking about their leadership. I am talking about Vladimir Putin, the thug. Putin is only able to prosecute his war through cashflow generated by his sale of oil. That is the only way. Without that cashflow from oil, he can't continue. We need to cut off his money. We need to cut off his sale of oil.
Now, we already have sanctions on oil, and Europe has sanctions on Russia, but Russia has figured out how to evade those sanctions and continue to sell its oil.
For example, India is buying a lot of Russia's oil. China is buying a lot of Russia's oil, but we can stop that. We have a bill--87 of us have signed on--that would apply what is called secondary sanctions on Russia and not only sanctions; our bill would not only sanction Russia and its sale of oil, but it would sanction everybody who buys Russian oil, a big difference, a big difference. It would say to those who want to buy Russian oil: If you want to buy Russian oil, have at it--knock yourself out--but you are not going to be able to do business with America, and you are not going to be able to use the American dollar, which is the world's currency, to do business in America. It will put Putin on his knees within 3 months, and he won't have any choice but to come to the bargaining table.
Now, President Trump has been very patient. President Biden wasn't patient; he was giving. I remember when President Biden said to Putin: Well, you know, we don't want you to go into Ukraine, but if it is just a little excursion, it might be OK.
I remember that. What do you think Putin did? Do you remember hand- feeding a shark? He went right into Ukraine.
President Trump, on the other hand, has really tried to be rational and negotiate with Putin and say: Look, we need to have an amicable solution to satisfy both sides.
Ukraine is willing. Putin has done nothing but embarrass our President and our country. The time has come to put Russia on its knees. I hate to see it for the Russian people, but the time has come to put Putin on his knees, to get him down and choke him. The only way you are going to do that is to cut off his cashflow, and the only way you are going to cut off his cashflow is to cut off his oil sales because that is at least a third--and probably 40 percent--of his money. We have no choice. Otherwise, this war could go on forever.
We have the bill locked, loaded, and ready to go. We are waiting for President Trump to give us the high sign because we want to stay together. The President is the one who is trying to negotiate the peace, but I hope President Trump will seriously consider letting us pull the trigger because it is the only thing--it is the only thing-- that is going to get Vladimir Putin to the table.
I wish the war weren't like that. There are just some people--I don't know why they make it to Heaven. I am going to ask. But there are some people in this world, they are not sick; they are not misunderstood; they are not mixed up. It is not really that their mom or dad didn't love them enough. They are just bad people. They are. And some of them run countries, and one of them is Vladimir Putin. So let's go do what we have to do.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source