Supportive statements were made at Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on ‘The Future of U.S. Policy Towards Russia’ on Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, convened a full committee hearing on the future of U.S. policy towards Russia, with witness testimony from David Hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs at the U.S. Department of State, and Christopher A. Ford, assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation at the U.S. Department of State.

As James Risch stressed in his speech ‘the world today is more dangerous and less free because of the Russian Federation.’

Of course, we all know about the invasions of Georgia and Ukraine over the years, and about the poisoning of Russian people on other sovereign soil. The world today is more dangerous and less free because of the Russian Federation.

As a result, the U.S. relationship with Russia is at a low point. During the height of the Cold War, our leaders had a lifeline to ensure that neither side made a disastrous miscalculation – the famous red phone.

Today, our engagements with Russia are few, and there is a growing risk of a strategic miscalculation on the seas, the ground, or in the skies.

Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, delivered opening remarks noting that Kremlin aggression since the invasion of Georgia in 2008 is unacceptable.

First, we must make very clear that so many examples of Kremlin aggression since the invasion of Georgia in 2008 are simply unacceptable and cannot become the norm in international affairs.

The invasion of Ukraine and illegal occupation of Crimea, the attempted assassination of regime opponents with chemical weapons on foreign soil, committing war crimes in Syria, the attack on our 2016 election. These are just some, Menendez said.

source: 1TV