Chuck Grassley Assails 'War Criminal' Putin, Decries Russia's Abduction Of Ukrainian Children

3/25/2025

During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) spoke about Russia's abduction of over 20,000 Ukrainian children during their invasion.

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Transcript

00:00I recognize the senator from Iowa.

00:02On this day in 1949, the Russian Soviet regime, occupying the Baltic countries,

00:13rounded up 95,000 people, mostly women and children, and sent them to Siberia.

00:24During Stalin's rule, more than 220,000 innocent people were deported to cold Siberia.

00:37This doesn't even include political prisoners sent to the Gulag camps.

00:45This day is observed by those Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

00:55by lighting candles in memory of these deportees.

01:01The reasons the Soviets did this is pretty simple.

01:06They wanted to crush civil society in newly occupied areas because they took over the Baltic countries in 1940.

01:18The ultimate goal was to eliminate Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian national identity entirely,

01:30replacing it with, of course, a Soviet Russian identity.

01:35The Soviets did not succeed in this effort.

01:41Now, you may not remember this from history,

01:46but the United States never recognized the illegal Soviet occupation of these three Baltic states.

01:58Now, the people of those three countries kept flame of freedom alive

02:04by quietly telling their children the truth about how their countries were once free and independent.

02:14Then, when the Soviet empire showed signs of weakness,

02:20their desire for freedom burst forth in what is called the Singing Revolution.

02:28It got the name because of the use of national songs banned by the Soviet,

02:37and this, by singing it, it was their means of protest.

02:43Fifty years of brutal Soviet occupation could not extinguish the flames of freedom,

02:52and all Baltic countries are again free and prosperous.

02:59These three countries happen to be among the most pro-American allies.

03:06I wonder if we learn from freedom

03:09because we know that when Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022,

03:18he has since kidnapped about 20,000 young people from Ukraine,

03:27taken them to Russia, to Russia-fiam, I guess you'd say,

03:35and we don't hear enough of that.

03:39We ought to be reminded of what the Soviets did after World War II,

03:49and it seems like the world has not learned a lesson

03:55or Putin wouldn't get away with his kidnapping of 20 children to take them to Russia from Ukraine.

04:02We should not allow this to consider,

04:05and the United States of America ought to be very cautious

04:10in any dealings with an international war criminal as Putin has been so condemned by.

04:22I yield the forum and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Chuck Grassley Assails 'War Criminal' Putin, Decries Russia's Abduction Of Ukrainian Children

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