‘House of Representatives’ resolution declares Cold War’

The US House of Representatives’ resolution passed Tuesday declares not only war against Russia, but a war for Kiev against Donetsk and Lugansk, Daniel McAdams, executive director at the Ron Paul Institute, told RT.

Vladimir Putin is “isolating Russia completely internationally,” claimed US President Barack Obama on Wednesday. He also said that he is “not optimistic that Putin will suddenly change his mind-set… which is part of the reason why we're going to continue to maintain that pressure.” The House of Representatives is discussing a resolution that condemns Russian actions in Ukraine. The motion describes Russia as “an authoritarian regime,” and calls for the reinforcement of NATO and the sale of US natural gas to Europe so they don’t need to buy energy from Russia.

RT:Do you think this resolution will be adopted?

Daniel McAdams: I think it will overwhelmingly be voted on. As a matter of fact it was debated [Wednesday] afternoon and the vote was delayed probably until tomorrow morning. I expect an overwhelming positive vote on this legislation.

RT:Former US Congressman Dennis Kucinich criticized the resolution saying it’s a “throwback to the Cold War era.” Is this a justified concern?

DM: I spent nearly 12 years on Capitol Hill working for a member of House Foreign Affairs Committee and I know exactly how these resolutions are drafted. It was not drafted by the member of Congress who is credited with it, Mr. Kinzinger of Illinois. These are drafted by special interests, they are handed to the members of Congress who are favored, who behave themselves in the committee and they get the glory of introducing a bill. The US media has been pushing this propaganda against Russia’s Putin for months and months. So Congress feels it has to do something to remain relevant and catch up with the people. But these resolutions are all put together and written by special interests and members feel they can’t vote “no” on them. You can say no on the one hand because it is just a resolution and has no force of law. But if you read the bill it is almost comical and that everything that it accuses Russia of doing the US and the US government in particularly has been doing certainly since last year. And one of the big complaints of the bill is how mean it is that Russia is putting forth “anti-American propaganda,” when this is exactly what Congress has been doing for the last year, it is almost comical. It accuses Russia of holding fraudulent elections which are pretty serious charges. Several occasions in the bill it mentions chapter five of the NATO Treaty which requires all NATO members to come to the military assistance of others, Ukraine is not a member of NATO. I don’t know if Congress understands what that means.

RT:This sort of rhetoric and these kinds of resolutions keep going forward to Congress and so forth, how are they going to jeopardize the relations that Russia and the US have? And what about the timing of these resolutions?

DM: It is interesting that you see; just when the South Stream pipeline that was supposed to start going through Bulgaria was called off this week - the US probably views that as a great victory. When the Europeans are paying 30 percent more for their fuel they may have a different view of it. But the timing is absolutely right. And this is a green light for the Poroshenko government to resume military actions against the “separatists” in Eastern Ukraine. If you read the resolution very, very early on, it encourages him to retake this territory. So it is not only a declaration of a US Cold War against Russia but it is a declaration of war for Kiev against Donetsk and Lugansk.

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