Mary Troyan

USA Today

WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump’s friendly outreach to Russia is already meeting resistance from key Republicans on Capitol Hill who are planning hearings to show why President Vladimir Putin should be isolated, not courted.

Sen. John McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, key GOP voices on foreign affairs, are warning Trump against such rapprochement when U.S. allies in Eastern Europe are feeling threatened and the war in Syria escalates.

Graham, in particular, is planning a series of hearings about what he termed Russia’s “misadventures” around the globe.

“I worry about Russia,” said Graham, R-S.C. “They’re a bad actor in the world and they need to be reined in.”

McCain, the Arizona Republican, called Putin an untrustworthy tyrant who doesn’t deserve a bargaining session with a U.S. president.

“When America has been at its greatest, it is when we have stood on the side those fighting tyranny. That is where we must stand again,” McCain said.

Taken together, the comments are a strong signal to the incoming Trump administration that a Republican-controlled Congress plans to aggressively assert itself in the foreign policy arena if it feels like the White House is taking a wrong turn.

Graham said he’ll use his chairmanship of the appropriations subcommittee that funds the State Department to explore alleged war crimes in Syria, cyberattacks on American allies in the Balkan States, propaganda aimed at Russian-speakers in the Ukraine during the annexation of Crimea, and similar aggressiveness in South Ossetia.

Russia’s involvement in hacking email accounts of Democratic Party operatives in the U.S. is particularly worrisome, Graham said.

“We cannot sit on the sidelines as a party and let allegations against a foreign government interfering in our election process go unanswered because it may have been beneficial to our cause for the moment,” Graham said. “This is a defining moment I think for the country. I want a good relationship with Russia, but things have to substantially change.”

McCain focused on Putin’s military intervention in Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad against U.S. backed opposition forces, and how a reset of U.S.-Russian relations would embolden Assad.

“At the very least, the price of another ‘reset’ would be complicity in Putin and Assad’s butchery of the Syrian people. That is an unacceptable price for a great nation,” said McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The pushback in Congress is likely to be bipartisan, said Olga Oliker, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“This is an area that will have a coalition of Democrats and Republicans who are very nervous about Trump’s seemingly pro-Russian views,” she said. “They control the money. They can hold things hostage. And they can pass laws, but they would need to be veto proof, such as sanctions on Russia.”

Trump praised Putin’s leadership during the campaign. Putin and Trump spoke by telephone on Monday and agreed to work toward "constructive cooperation" and improved relations.

The Pentagon and the intelligence community, like McCain and Graham, generally remain suspicious of Putin. But at least one Republican senator has backed Trump’s softer approach.

“Donald Trump is right,” Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told CNN during the campaign. “We need to figure out a way to end this cycle of hostility that's putting this country at risk, costing us billions of dollars in defense, and creating hostilities.”

Sessions is a top adviser to Trump and a considered a possible nominee for Secretary of Defense, Attorney General or Secretary of Homeland Security.

Graham said he and McCain are planning a trip to Ukraine, Georgia and the Baltic states.

“(Trump) is president of the United States and he is the leading diplomat for the country, but Congress has a role,” Graham said.

Trump speaks with Putin by phone

Putin yanks Russia from International Criminal Court