US Senator condemns Russian occupation in Georgia

Republican US Senator Marco Rubio condemns the occupation of Georgian territory by Russia. 

In his speech to the US Senate, Rubio addressed US-Russia relations and used Georgia as an example of Russia’s desire for power.

"The best way to understand the situation with Russia is that primarily, there is a President, Putin, who has nationalistic tendencies and he wants Russia to somehow reclaim what he views as its glory days of world prominence,” Senator Rubio stated.

He said Russia had concluded that the best way to achieve its aims was to be antagonistic and outright hostile to the United States. Another part of its plan was to round-up it’sneighbours and bring them under Russia’s sphere of influence.

"We have two stunning examples of that over the past few years. The first is the Republic of Georgia, which [Russia] invaded a few years ago, and even now they still occupy territory within it,” Rubio stated.

In its Olympic preparation, Russia had gone further and had "sealed off portions of Georgian territory they claim they need as a security buffer”, he said.

"That is completely outrageous but it is happening with very little attention on the international stage.”

Rubio mentioned Ukraine as a second example of how Russia attempted to dominate nearby countries. 

"To see how they used the threat of noncooperation economically, and even subterfuge economically to try to force Ukraine to reject a deal to integrate with the European Union and instead seek to be part of this new thing that the Russian Government is trying to create,” he stated.

At the end of his speech, Senator Rubio expressed his hope that US policy-makers would take more time to examine the nature of the Russian Government and determine the future relationship between Russia and the USA.