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Floor Speech

The eyes of history are on the Senate today. If the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline comes online, as it is on the verge of doing, the odds of Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine increase dramatically. We have imposed sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline with bipartisan unity. We can do it again.

If Russian tanks roll into Kiev, who in this Chamber wants that on their conscience?

We need to stop Russia from invading Ukraine, and the only way to do it is by imposing sanctions on Nord Stream 2. We did that 2 years ago. We overwhelmingly passed bipartisan sanctions that President Trump signed into law.

It is worth explaining why these two are linked.

We are all reading in the newspaper--and my friend from Virginia and I have sat in briefings, classified and public briefings--that over 100,000 Russian troops are massed on the Ukraine border. The administration declassified its own projections that an invasion of Ukraine is imminent and could come as soon as January or February of next year. This disaster is the direct result of a political mistake made by Joe Biden.

What does the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline have to do with Russia's invading Ukraine?

Well, here is a little bit of ancient history. In the year 2014, Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

Why?

He did it because he has said that he considers the dissolution of the Soviet Union to be the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 21st century, and his grand ambition is to recreate the Soviet Union--by force.

A reassembled Soviet Union would be a profound threat to the safety of all Americans. We spent decades with a dangerous Soviet Union. In 2014, Putin invaded Ukraine--he invaded Crimea--but he stopped. He didn't go through all of Ukraine.

Why did he stop?

He stopped because Russian natural gas, to get to Europe, goes through Ukraine. The pipelines go through Ukraine.

There is nothing in regular order that limits my ability to explain my view on this topic.

So, apparently, the Democrats don't want to talk about Joe Biden's gift to Russia and Putin that has set up the tanks on the border of Ukraine.

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Mr. CRUZ. Is the Chair refusing to let me speak?

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Mr. CRUZ. And, just a moment ago, the Chair granted unanimous consent that that time be extended until this unanimous consent request was concluded. That is the pending UC that was granted.

If Senator Kaine or the Chair wants to silence me because you don't want to hear what is happening in Ukraine, you can try to do that.

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Mr. CRUZ. And the Chair and the Democrats are hiding from the truth.

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