December 18, 2020
NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA: I’m going to be brief in my questions, to give you some time to you to respond. And I will start with the news of the last days: cyber attacks allegedly conducted by Russians on major infrastructure, objects, and networks in America. And I read and saw a lot of comments of professionals who elaborated on the type of response: political, geopolitical, military even, [as] an attack on infrastructure is considered to be, and of course my heart is not feeling easy when I hear such things.
The first question is, how to be sure that Russians are behind these attacks, because they say it might be Russians, might be the Iranians, might be the Chinese. Because of the consequences of the response to the attackers, I think it is so important to be more than 100% sure that this party is specifically responsible for these attacks. And I want to hear your comments on this new bad news in Russian-American relations.
Air Force photograph by Airman 1st Class Stuart Bright
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein signs the Barksdale Air Force Base Weapons flag at the Weapons Load Training hangar at Barksdale AFB, La., Oct. 17, 2017. Goldfein met with Airmen throughout the day to discuss the nuclear mission and the role they perform to execute it.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein discussed the important role Barksdale Air Force Base Airmen perform in executing the nuclear deterrence and assurance mission during an all-call at the Weapons Load Training hangar, Oct. 17, 2017, at Barksdale Air Force Base, La.
the nsc process? the nsc staff exists to ensure the president has the full array of options for his decision. thank you. i yield back. mr. castro. thank you chairman. thank you, gentlemen, for your testimony today. is it correct to say that both you gentlemen were either appointed or hired by the white house and by the trump administration? yes, sir. in my case by secretary tillerson. but part of the trump administration. yes. serving in the same administration. . ambassador volker, you previously identified that gordon sondland, i just know that he had a relationship with president trump that i did not have. in fact, in one text message dated july 26th you wrote to sondland, great photo. can you get this to potus without intermediaries. he spoke to the president from a
policy? sir, the president. not some other staffer within the nsc process? it exists to make sure the president has the full array of options for his decision. thank you. i yield back. thank you, chairman. thank you, gentlemen, for your testimony today. is it correct to say both you gentlemen were either appointed or hired by the white house, by the trump administration? yes, sir. in my case by secretary tillerson. but part of the trump administration? yes. serving in the same administration. sure. ambassador volker, you previously testified that ambassador gordon sondland, quote, i just know that he had a relationship with president trump that i did not have. in fact, in one text message dated july 26, you wrote to ambassador sondland quote, great photo sondland can you get this to potus without intermediary.
with, you are not part of an irregular channel, aren t you the official channel? that is correct. explain how you are the official channel? i was appointed by the secretary of state. a secretary tillerson in july 2017 to be the u.s. special representative for the ukraine negotiations. that is different from executive secretary of state or different from ambassador in ukraine. that role is particularly focused on the diplomatic activity surrounding the efforts to reverse russia s engagement of ukraine. it is a minced agreement, implementation. it is the normative process with france and germany. it is support from nato. it is support for sanctions from european union, it is the osc and the monetary missions. it is the efforts of individual allies like poland, like the u.k. like canada that are supporting ukraine. it is work at a senior level in the inner agency was secretary i m going to cut you off there. ambassador volker, you are also