mr. kara-murza, thank you for willingness to testify today. >> senator barrasso. >> thank you, mr. chairman. secretary nuland, good to see you again. i want to talk about intermediate range nuclear forces treaty. russia is violating the nif treaty for quite some time. it was made official in public in 2014. in response to questioning on matter the administration is exploring economic countermeasures in response to the violation. in president's speech back in april of 2009 in prague he committed to ridding the world of nuclear weapons. he said in order for non-proliferation regime to work he said, violations must be punished and then he said words must mean something. this is president obama, words must mean something. this administration has now said for years that they're considering economic sanctions against russia, for its violation of the imf treat at this time. is russia still in violation of that treaty and when is the administration finally going to get around to punishing this violation of the treaty? >> thank you, senator barrasso. dr. barrasso i like to call you. as you

mr. kara-murza who is a witness here who was poisoned here to death. with flames of nationalism are burning as bright as putin's imperial adventures seem to be part of a campaign to make russia great again. whether in ukraine where with the exception of congressional sanctions that i and others have offered and passed through this committee and the congress passed in 2014, the administration has done relatively little to hold russian accountable in meaningful material ways. or in syria where we have been maneuvered in having to coordinate with russian forces who neither share common interests nor pursue common goals while hundreds of thousands have died or millions displaced or at the u.n. where they resist sanctions on iran for missile violations in violation of u.n. security council regulars which they supported or their violation of the inf treaty for which two years we've had discussions but no consequences. so i worry that the message that putin must be taking from our responses is that his limit testing, aggression and opportunityism is the right

mr. vladimir kara-murza. i know you were at an earlier hearing we had this year, and all of us wanted to have you back. we thank you for making the effort to be here. so with that, mr. satter, if you would begin with about five minutes, we would appreciate it. we'll move to mr. kara-murza. now it's on. good, thank you. >> thank you, senator. i'm very glad to be here. -- ine a short, victorious war to boost the rating at that point of president yeltsin, who was suffering because of the aftereffects of privatization and the impoverishment of the population. the war proved to be neither short nor victorious. second chechen war was undertaken in order to guarantee the succession to yeltsin. this is one of the most important episodes of russian history. also one about which americans are very much in the dark. a terrorist act took place. it was used to justify a new war in chechnya. yeltsin -- putin, rather, who was very little known, became the prime minister. took charge of that war. on the strength of the succe

mr. kara-murza. thank you very much, chairman kocher, senator shaheen hold -- >> senator markey stepped in too. >> senator mark kirks thank you so much for being here. thank you for the opportunity to testify to appear before you today. 25 years ago at a conference held of all places in moscow, members for the organization of security and cooperation in europe established a principle issues relating to democracy, human rights and rule of law, i quote, matters of legitimate concern to all participating states and do not belong exclusively internal affairs of the state concerned. to the council of europe, russian federation has you know taken clear and binding commitments with respect to election standards, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and other important aspects of human rights. all these principles enshrined in the russian constitution. in 16 years nearly a full generation in power, vladmir putin turned these regimes and principles into a dead letter. today elections in our country serv