CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Russia

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

And joining us now, Representative Michael McCaul. He's the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Mr. Chairman, thanks very much for joining us. Is this a new Cold War that's under way right now with Russia?

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: I believe it is. I think Putin has taken us back to the Cold War. I think his long-term game strategy is to take back the Baltic states and the Ukraine, wherever Russian-speaking peoples reside. That's where he wants to go in and really reconstitute the old Soviet Union.

And I think, you know, in this case, it's instructive that weakness invites aggression. And I think Mr. Putin does not have respect for our president, unfortunately, and now he's playing a war of aggression that he thinks he can win.

BLITZER: So what will it take, in your opinion, for the Russian president to stop?

MCCAUL: Well, look, I think the sanctions the president laid out are a good first start, but they're not going to be effective. Even the Brookings Institution said that Russia can absorb that shock. I think what needs to be done are tougher sanctions on the energy

exports out of Russia, which would cripple Russia's economy.

At the same time, the Europeans and Ukraine rely on that, and they're dependent on Russia. One fix I have would be lifting the crude oil ban that we have in the United States. We could export that to help Ukraine, to help Europe and then cripple Russia's economy. And at the same time, Wolf, create jobs here in the United States.

BLITZER: Do you think the European allies and others will go along?

MCCAUL: I think if we, certainly -- the Europeans, remember the E.U. specifically begged us to lift the ban on crude oil exports in a secret memo that was later released. So they want us to do that.

It would take one action, a stroke of the pen by the president, to lift that ban so we could make them energy independent from Russia, and that would have a devastating impact on the Russian economy. I think that's the best chance for success here. No one wants to see an all-out war between the United States and Russia. I think this a good, workable solution to get there.

BLITZER: You know, it's been, what, nearly two weeks since the tragic downing of the Malaysian Flight 17. The investigators, the OSCE monitors, they're still not really able to fully access the crash site due to the volatility in the region. Russia continues to support and arm those separatists. So does this latest round of sanctions, does it go far enough to deal with this current crisis? You want a lot more, right?

MCCAUL: I do, and Brookings Institution, which is not exactly a conservative think tank, they agree with me. That they're not going to be effective. They're not going to stop Putin from his over- aggression on the Baltic states and the Ukraine.

And we talk about the crash site, it's been nothing short of a disaster in terms of the inability of the international community to get in there.

The last briefing I had, Wolf, was that they actually -- they laid land mines around the crash site to prevent international investigators in there. So this is really overt, not to mention the fact that it was just disclosed recently that they are also in violation of the nuclear arms treaty that President Reagan struck with Gorbachev. They have developed weapons that are in violation of that treaty.

This is -- we talk a lot about al Qaeda and the border and other issues, but I see this as becoming a real threat to the United States.

BLITZER: Who's responsible, in your opinion, for this deterioration in U.S./Russian relations?

MCCAUL: I personally think it's the president's lack of leadership globally. I don't think he's well-respected. I think you know, you look back to what Churchill warned about in World War II, what President Kennedy talked about in terms of building up a military and a democracy to defend a democracy, and Reagan, I don't see this president really going down that road.

And again, the principle of weakness invites aggression is precisely what we're seeing with respect to Russia and Mr. Putin. I've been over to Russia. It's a national pride that he's reinvigorated his country with. And I believe that his long-term strategy again is to take back what was formerly the Soviet Union.

BLITZER: Strong words from Mike McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Mr. Chairman, thanks for joining us.

MCCAUL: Thanks, Wolf. Thanks for having me.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source