Heightened US Rhetoric on Ukraine Could Lead to New Cold War

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Heightened US Rhetoric on Ukraine Could Lead to New Cold War – US Congressman

RIA Novosti, PUBLISHED 30.04.2014

US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has expressed his concern in an interview with RIA Novosti that the heightened rhetoric surrounding the Ukraine crisis could lead to a new Cold War with Russia.

“They are ignoring the fact that the Cold War is over. That is very damaging to national security and the peace of the world,” Rohrabacher, who is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Tuesday in reference to some of his colleagues in the House of Representatives.

During a subcommittee hearing on nuclear arms negotiations with Russia in Washington, Rohrabacher stated that there are some leaders in the United States who treat the Russian government as if it were the leadership of the Soviet Union, which is a dangerous mistake.

The rhetoric against Russia was amplified in the opening statement by subcommittee chair Ted Poe, who was part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that recently returned to the US from Ukraine.

“In a matter of weeks, Putin and his commandos stole Crimea. Now he's on to Eastern Ukraine,” Poe said in his opening speech.

Other members’ remarks were more restrained. Democrat Rep. Brad Sherman urged against oversimplifying foreign policy. He likened foreign governments' attempts to balance territorial integrity and self-determination with the historic fights of the United States in the Revolutionary and Civil wars, saying, “These were the greatest fights we fought.”

“Clearly we have a very serious situation with Ukraine right now; clearly it is bad. But we continue to work together when we can on important issues like Syria, chemical weapons and arms control, implementing the START treaty,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear and Strategic Policy, Anita E. Friedt.

Friedt commented further that the START treaty is being implemented successfully “there are no questions there.”

Tensions between Russia and the West worsened after the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February, followed by the rise to power of Ukrainian nationalist politicians in the new government in Kiev which Moscow considers illegitimate.

The subsequent reunification of Crimea with Russia, sparked by deepening concerns over ultranationalist rhetoric from the new authorities in Kiev, triggered the deepest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the end of Cold War.

Topics: USA, Ukraine

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