WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today questioned Vladimir Kara-Murza, a twice-poisoned Russian dissident, at a State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations subcommittee hearing about Vladimir Putin’s efforts to suppress dissent throughout Russia. 

“Vladimir Putin won his first presidential election March 26, 2000, and just this week coinciding with the 17th anniversary of that, tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets—including Alexei Navalny and activists who defied bans on peaceful protests—for some of the fiercest anti-Kremlin, anti-corruption protests in five years,” said Senator Coons. “All of us in elected leadership in the United States and other Western democracies should be clear in our response: condemning the detention of peaceful protesters, advocating for the core value of free speech, and insisting that the Russian people deserve a government free of corruption and accountable under the rule of law.”

“Mr. Kara-Murza, you said in your introduction that you were poisoned by an undefined toxin. I appreciate your clarifying for us,” said Senator Coons. “Your defining the toxin with which Western democracy is currently being poisoned, which is a combination of corruption, disinformation, sustained hybrid warfare. Thank you for both your service and sacrifice, and for making all of us stronger in the face of this toxin.”

Full video and audio available here.

 

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