Jeanne Shaheen Questions Nominee About Protecting Moldova From Russian Disinformation

5 months ago

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) questioned pending nominees about Moldova, Russian disinformation and other international concerns.

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Transcript

00:00 Shaheen.

00:01 Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning.

00:04 Congratulations to each of you on your nominations.

00:07 Miss Adam-Smith, I want to begin with you because I had the opportunity to travel to

00:11 Moldova for the first time back in February, and I was very impressed with the commitment

00:17 of the Moldovans we talked to about joining the EU and looking west and concern about

00:24 what's happening in the war in Ukraine and what Russia is doing, was also met with President

00:31 Sandu, she's now, and she shared her focus on judicial reforms and how important she

00:38 thinks that is ahead of the upcoming presidential elections.

00:42 So I think rightfully so that without a reform judiciary it will be very hard for Moldova

00:49 to continue the reforms that they need to make.

00:53 So can you talk about what more we can do, what more you would do if confirmed to help

00:58 support Moldova as they're looking at these, particularly the judicial reforms?

01:04 Senator, thank you very much for the question.

01:08 Our assistance has focused on helping the Moldovan government improve its rule of law

01:13 and fight anti-corruption, especially in terms of increasing the independence of the judicial

01:19 sector.

01:20 We have assisted the Moldovan government in creating a system for pre-vetting of prosecutors

01:26 and judges and created a model court system.

01:29 And if I'm confirmed, we will continue these efforts, but also focus on working with creating

01:36 space for free and independent media and working with civil society because those are absolutely

01:42 essential in holding the government to account on its anti-corruption path.

01:48 The other thing we heard concerns about is the amount of Russian disinformation that

01:53 is being spread throughout Moldova.

01:56 Just this week there was a Politico article that pointed out that Russia is responsible

02:01 for circulating deepfake videos of President Sandu to try and undermine her re-election

02:07 campaign.

02:09 So is there more that we should be doing to help the Moldovans protect themselves from

02:14 this kind of disinformation?

02:17 Thank you, Senator, for the question.

02:20 Russian malign influence takes many forms in Moldova.

02:25 There is this disinformation and propaganda.

02:28 There's also energy coercion, hybrid and cyber attacks.

02:32 There's also conventional threats.

02:36 Our assistance is focused on helping the government increase its resilience towards this disinformation.

02:46 I think they're learning a lot.

02:48 They learned a lot from last year's regional or local elections.

02:53 And is there more that we can do?

02:55 Absolutely.

02:56 I believe that we should use all the tools in our toolkit.

02:59 If there is evidence of election tampering or use of propaganda or deepfakes that interfere

03:08 with the running of free and fair elections, we should consider using sanctions and visa

03:13 bans and to send a powerful signal that this cannot happen in Moldova.

03:20 Thank you.

03:21 I really appreciate that.

03:22 And hopefully the Global Engagement Center can help us as we're thinking about how we

03:26 can help other countries.

03:28 Ms. Horst, the People's Republic of China has considerable economic leverage over Sri

03:33 Lanka because of its infrastructure investments and loans.

03:37 Now I was pleased to see a recent U.S. investment in Sri Lanka's port capabilities, but it's

03:44 really a drop in the bucket compared to existing Chinese capital in the country.

03:49 So can you talk about what the implications are of China's ability to leverage infrastructure

03:56 investments and other energy, other issues in the country, and what more we should be

04:02 thinking about as we're trying to provide a counterbalance to what China's doing?

04:09 Senator, thank you very much for that question.

04:11 And it gets to the heart of the Indo-Pacific strategy, and Sri Lanka is an incredibly important

04:17 member or an incredibly important part of that, not only because of the geography, but

04:21 also because it is a democracy with an open economy.

04:25 And so the investment by DFC that you named is a great example of how we're using tools

04:30 that the United States government has to invest and show a different model of investment that

04:36 is different than what the PRC might offer.

04:40 This is a half a billion dollar investment in what we see as Sri Lanka's future.

04:45 It is transparent.

04:46 It will promote good governance.

04:48 And this is exactly the kind of alternative that we feel will just demonstrate to Sri

04:53 Lankans that they have a choice, and we think that our model is better.

04:58 Thank you.

04:59 I'm going to take a little time, but I just returned from a trip to the Indo-Pacific about

05:02 a month ago.

05:03 And one of the things we heard in the countries that we visited where China has tried to make

05:08 those kinds of investments is that they would rather do business with the United States,

05:12 because for all the reasons you just gave.

05:15 But unfortunately, we have not always come to the table in ways that can provide the

05:21 support that those countries need.

05:23 So thank you.

05:24 I appreciate your comments.

05:25 And I don't know if you want to respond to that before the amount of time.

05:30 Senator, I'm confirmed I will find ways to bring all of the resources that the United

05:34 States and our friends and allies have to help continue along these efforts.

05:38 Thank you very much.

05:39 Thank you all.

05:40 Senator Van Hollen.

05:41 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:43 And let me start by congratulating all of you on your nominations.

Jeanne Shaheen Questions Nominee About Protecting Moldova From Russian Disinformation

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