and reform. sweeping the region received training and financing from groups like the international republican institute, the national democratic institute, and freedom house. they were created by congress and are financed through the national endowment for democracy, training and financing, financing and training. yeah, news has made a series of reports. quoting former us intelligence officials revealing this yeas secret training initiative for you quentin in special operations forces that began attention in 2015. as part of it ca, paramilitaries had even secretly traveled to east in ukraine to assist forces loyal to here in their fight against the don boss. the c i. a operatives taught the ukranian counterparts, the best skills for regular warfare. we tried to really focus on operational planning than really hard military skills like long range marksmanship, not just the capacity to do it, but to know how to do it on a battlefield. there are many videos that appear to show i'd our members been trained by instructors from nature countries that ukraine can hardly afford without support. and here's 1st h

twining, the president of the international republican institute where he leads the institute's efforts to advance democracy and freedom around the world. dr. twining served as counsel to the president, director of the asia program at the german marshall fund. at a member of the secretary of state's planning staff and as the foreign policy adviser to my friend and former colleague the late u.s. senator john mccain. he's also been an associate of the national intelligence council, taught at georgetown university and served as a military instructor at the navy post graduate school. welcome, dr. twining. we are encouraged to have your timely testimony today. ms. applebaum? >> thank you very much and good morning, mr. acting chairman and ranking member risch. members of the committee, thank you so much for inviting me here today. i'm going to begin where chairman menendez left off. we talked about how -- he talked about how -- chairman menendez spoke of how in the 21st century the idea we have of an autocrat being a single person operating by himself is no longer true. nowadays autocracies

international clean energy revolution led by the united states. but instead what i hear from republicans and on fox news and from the american petroleum institute is same classic refrain of drill, baby, drill. their insidious answer to war, to rising prices, to any crisis that they can use for their own purpose is more drilling and more leases. well, where has the american prevarication institute argument gotten us so far? one, skyrocketing exports which hike up our prices to american consumers and feeding into the global fossil fuel addiction. public lands and waters the size of indiana that are locked down by unused fossil fuel leases which companies squat upon to pad their own asset base and prevent renewable development. wars and national security threats driven and paid for by big oil's craving for more profits. climate chaos with more than $700 billion worth of damages caused by extreme weather, disasters in the united states over the last five years alone. $700 billion worth of damage to us, to the united states from climate in the last five years. in 2015 congress repealed the crude oil and gas export ban. it had been in place for 40 years