As Ukraine Presidential Election Approaches, Merkley and Durbin Introduce Resolution to Support Ukrainian Democracy & Combat Russian Election Interference

Statement

Oregon's Senator Jeff Merkley, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today announced that he and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) have introduced a Senate resolution supporting Ukrainian democracy in the lead-up to Ukraine's upcoming election on March 31.

Merkley and Durbin's resolution expresses concern about potential Russian efforts to disrupt voting or undermine the legitimacy of results, and asks the Trump administration to brief Congress after the election on the scope and scale of any Russian interference in the Ukrainian presidential campaign.

The Merkley-Durbin resolution expresses support for the principles that "the United States does not prefer any particular candidate in the Ukrainian Presidential election and seeks only a transparent and democratic election that reflects the will of the Ukrainian people; the United States will continue to support democracy and good governance in Ukraine including anti-corruption initiatives as well as independent media and rule of law strengthening efforts to support the ideals of Ukraine's revolution of dignity; and that the United States should continue to work with allies to provide additional capacity building and technical support in order to deter against Russian efforts to disrupt voting or undermine the legitimacy of the results."

After Ukraine's peaceful "Maidan Revolution" in 2014, Russia reacted violently against the burgeoning pro-democracy, pro-Western sentiment in Ukraine by illegally annexing Crimea and launching an invasion in Eastern Ukraine. Russia also pioneered "fake news" disinformation techniques to spread propaganda and sow division within Ukraine. Russia's anti-democratic intervention in Ukraine was an early warning sign of more anti-democratic initiatives to come. In the following several years, the Kremlin became emboldened following the international fallout from its invasion of Ukraine, and stepped up its assault on democratic institutions and elections in other Western nations--culminating in its attack on the American presidential election in 2016.

Experts on Russia have pinpointed Ukraine as the "front line" of Putin's international aggression and war on democratic values. Former U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation Michael McFaul has said that "Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging a global ideological war against Western liberal, democratic values. It has been underway for many years, and it extends from his own immediate neighborhood to Western Europe and, of course, the United States, where he intervened in the U.S. presidential election in 2016. The front line of this ideological war between Putinism and democracy, however, remains Ukraine."

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