CNN: Tensions in Ukraine
The following interview originally aired on CNN on April 25, 2014. A transcript and video of the interview are below. If you have difficulty viewing the video, click here.
Carol Costello: Congressman Mike Quigley, joined a bipartisan trip as both a fact-finding mission and a show of U.S. support for Ukraine's government, he joins me now, welcome.
Representative Mike Quigley: Welcome, thanks for having me; good to be home.
Costello: I bet it is. Things don't seem to be settling down in Ukraine at all, how would you characterize it?
Rep. Quigley: Well it's clearly a country on edge, at the same time, talking to the public and cultural and political leaders, it is a country that is facing an underdog's role with extraordinary optimism.
Costello: Well, it sort of seems the sanctions are working since standard import slashed Russia's credit rating, a good sign at least from our perspective in the United States.
Rep. Quigley: Sure, and the ruble is at an all-time low, their stock market is down twenty percent, this is clearly a financial war that Putin can't handle, I'm not sure if he realizes that.
Costello: He doesn't seem to care.
Rep. Quigley: No he doesn't seem to care. We met with Mr. Yanukovych's former chief, and he explained he knew Mr. Putin pretty well in the old days. He thought that, it was interesting, in Russia if Putin takes and keeps Crimea, his name, as he said, would be written in gold on the Kremlin wall, but that if he invaded and that he had ethnic Russians killing ethnic Russians, his name wouldn't be written on that wall. So there are many who don't understand how far Putin is taking this action.
Costello: Okay, so what if Russia does invade eastern Ukraine and annexes eastern Ukraine just like it annexed Crimea, and then says ‘okay, we're done,' what should the United States do then?
Rep. Quigley: Well I think that we need help from the European Union and NATO. We're not dealing with a good set of cards here, unfortunately the Ukrainian military, such as it is, is not up to this task, it'd be hard to imagine any individual government that would be. There's an economy that's in turmoil, there's widespread corruption, so they need our help and our allies help. I think the next round of sanctions will be of great assistance. We saw the beginnings of non-lethal military assistance going to Ukraine, I think that needs to double down as well.
Costello: Congressman Mike Quigley, thank you so much for joining me this morning, I appreciate it.
Rep. Quigley: Thank you.