[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 103 (Monday, June 14, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H2726-H2728]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REAFFIRMING TRANSATLANTIC SOLIDARITY
(Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, as co-chair of the bipartisan
Congressional Ukraine Caucus, I rise to reaffirm transatlantic
solidarity in advance of President Biden's meeting with Russian
dictator Vladimir Putin.
I am so thankful to President Biden, who is personally committed to
liberty in Ukraine. I was proud to travel with him and Senator McCain
to Ukraine in 2015, for President Poroshenko's inauguration.
As President Biden knows well, Vladimir Putin is an enemy of liberty.
Ukraine faces its seventh year of brutal Russian aggression that has
led to over 14,000 deaths. Putin's thugs gunned down liberty defenders
like Boris Nemtsov and so many more freedom lovers.
Madam Speaker, I include in the Record Amnesty International's deeply
troubling human rights report on Russia.
Russia
Russian Federation
Head of state: Vladimir Putin
Head of government: Mikhail Mishustin (replaced Dmitry
Medvedev in January)
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed chronic under-resourcing in
health care. The authorities used the pandemic as a pretext
to continue the crackdown on all dissent, including through
amendments to a vaguely worded law on ``fake news'' and
tightening restrictions on public gatherings. Peaceful
protesters, human rights defenders and civic and political
activists faced arrest and prosecution. Persecution of
Jehovah's Witnesses intensified. Torture remained endemic, as
did near total impunity for perpetrators. The right to a fair
trial was routinely violated while legal amendments resulted
in a further reduction in judicial independence. Reports of
domestic violence rose sharply during COVID-19 lockdown
measures, although the draft law on domestic violence
remained stalled in Parliament. LGBTI people continued to
face discrimination and persecution. Thousands of labour
migrants lost their jobs during the pandemic but were unable
to leave because of border closures. Evidence emerged to
corroborate allegations of war crimes by Russian forces in
Syria.
BACKGROUND
The economic downturn, underpinned by falling oil prices,
dwindling investment and foreign sanctions, and exacerbated
by the COVID-19 pandemic, led to a further impoverishment of
a growing proportion of the population. Discontent widened,
with a slow but steady increase in protests. The government
continually faced, and ignored, mounting allegations of
corruption at all levels. Measures announced by President
Vladimir Putin and his government, like extended fully paid
leave for all workers in response to COVID-19, failed to
address people's broader concerns.
[[Page H2727]]
The authorities introduced multiple amendments to the
Constitution, with the apparent purpose of removing legal
restrictions on President Putin's participation in future
presidential elections.
Russia maintained a strong influence on its immediate
neighbours, and its occupation of Crimea and other
territories continued.
right to health
The COVID-19 pandemic placed further strain on the health
care system, exposing chronic under-resourcing. A shortage of
hospital beds, key protective and medical equipment and
medications, together with the delayed wages of health
workers, were frequently reported across the country.
Official and independent numbers on infection and mortality
rates varied greatly, indicating government under-reporting.
Health workers
Whistle-blowers from among health workers and other groups
faced reprisals, including disciplinary measures and
prosecution for ``fake news''.
Doctor Tatyana Revva was arbitrarily reprimanded and
threatened with dismissal after she repeatedly complained
about the shortage and inadequacy of protective equipment.
Police considered and dismissed ``fake news'' allegations
against her following a complaint from the hospital's head
doctor.
Prison conditions
Health care and sanitary provisions in penitentiary
institutions remained inadequate and further exacerbated by
the pandemic. Although the authorities implemented
restrictive and additional sanitary measures, they did not
take measures to reduce the prison population. Official
COVID-19 figures in custody were considered unreliable by
independent monitors.
freedom of assembly
Freedom of peaceful assembly remained constrained with
further restrictions introduced in December. The rules
relating to public assemblies and single-person pickets were
further restricted in response to the pandemic, and some
regions banned them outright. Public protests were typically
small but regular, despite reprisals. There was a sharp
increase in the numbers of single picketers arrested and
prosecuted.
On 15 July, over a hundred peaceful protesters against
constitutional changes were arbitrarily arrested and at least
three severely beaten by the police in Moscow. Dozens were
heavily fined or detained for five to 14 days.
The 9 July arrest of Sergey Furgal, who in 2018 had
defeated the pro-Kremlin candidate to be elected Governor in
the Far East Khabarovsk Region, prompted weekly peaceful mass
protests in Khabarovsk as well as solidarity protests across
Russia. Unusually, tens of thousands were allowed to march
repeatedly in Khabarovsk before police made the first arrests
on 18 July. On 10 October, police dispersed the protest for
the first time, arresting at least 25 people, with at least
five later sentenced to several days in detention. The
protests in Khabarovsk were continuing at year's end.
In December, peaceful protester Konstantin Kotov was
released following his imprisonment in 2019 for ``repeated
violation'' of regulations on public assemblies. In January,
the Constitutional Court had ordered a review of his case,
and in April, the Moscow City Court reduced his sentence from
four years to 18 months. Others prosecuted for the same
offence included political activist Yulia Galyamina, who was
given a two-year conditional sentence in December, activist
Vyacheslav Egorov standing trial in Kolomna, and protester
Aleksandr Prikhodko from Khabarovsk. In December, Aleksandr
Prikhodko's case was dropped.
While police routinely used excessive and unnecessary force
against protesters, they also allowed anti-protester violence
by other groups. In Kushtau, Bashkiria, peaceful
environmental activists who opposed a local mining project
were repeatedly assaulted, with impunity, by private security
staff, occasionally operating alongside police. Late on 9
August, around 30 private security guards and around 100
masked men attacked a camp of 10 environmental activists.
Police were called but did not intervene. This triggered
further local protests which forced the closure of the mining
project in late August.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Restrictions on freedom of expression continued. On 1
April, amendments to the so-called ``fake news'' law, first
passed in 2019, criminalized dissemination of ``knowingly
false information about circumstances posing a threat to the
lives and security of citizens and/or about the government's
actions to protect the population.'' Individuals face up to
five years' imprisonment if dissemination of information
leads to bodily harm or death, with hefty fines for the
media. Hundreds of people were fined under administrative
proceedings, and at least 37 faced criminal proceedings under
this law, many of them critical civil activists, journalists
or bloggers. At least five media outlets were prosecuted. The
newspaper Novaya Gazeta and its chief editor were fined
twice, in August and September, for publications about COVID-
19 and ordered to delete respective articles online.
Journalists
Harassment, prosecution and physical attacks against
journalists continued. On 30 June, police in Saint Petersburg
assaulted reporter David Frenkel at a polling station and
broke his arm. On 15 October, a journalist from Khabarovsk,
Sergei Plotnikov, was abducted by masked men, driven to the
woods, beaten and subjected to a mock execution. He reported
the incident to the police once released but by year's end,
he had not been informed about any investigation.
A journalist from Nizhnii Novgorod, Irina Slavina, faced
routine harassment by the authorities. On 1 October, her home
was raided and searched, and police summoned her as a witness
in a criminal case against a local activist under the
``undesirable organizations'' law. On 2 October, she died
after self-immolating in protest in front of the regional
police headquarters.
On 6 July, a military court in Pskov convicted journalist
Svetlana Prokopieva of ``public justification of terrorism''
and fined her RUB500,000 (US$6,300) for her public comments
on repressive policies that may have motivated a 17-year-old
to blow himself up near the Federal Security Service building
in Arkhangelsk.
Internet
Censorship of the internet continued. In June, the European
Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Vladimir Kharitonov v.
Russia and three other cases ruled that internet-blocking
measures were ``excessive and arbitrary'' and violated the
right to impart and receive information. A court in Moscow
fined Google RUBl.5 million (US$18,899) in August and RUB3
million (US$40,580) in December for its search engine listing
``dangerous content'' banned by Russian authorities. In
December, President Putin signed a law introducing sanctions
on foreign internet platforms for blocking Russian media
content. Another law passed in December introduced
imprisonment for libel committed via the internet.
Repression of dissent
Opposition activists and other dissenting voices faced
severe reprisals. As part of the politically motivated
criminal case against opposition leader Alexei Navalny's
AntiCorruption Fund, 126 bank accounts belonging to his
associates were frozen in January, followed by criminal and
civil libel cases against Alexei Navalny and others. On 20
August, Alexei Navalny was taken ill on a flight from Tomsk.
He was urgently hospitalized, and later flown to Germany
where he was diagnosed with poisoning by a military-grade
nerve agent. The Russian authorities failed to investigate
the poisoning.
Siberian shaman Aleksandr Gabyshev, who had vowed to
``purge'' President Putin from the Kremlin, was on 12 May
confined to a psychiatric hospital after he refused to be
tested for COVID-19. He was discharged on 22 July following
criticism in Russia and abroad.
In June, political blogger Nikolay Platoshkin was placed
under house arrest on criminal charges of ``calls to mass
disturbances'' and dissemination of ``knowingly false
information'' for planning a peaceful protest against
constitutional amendments.
human rights defenders
Harassment, prosecution, and physical attacks against human
rights defenders remained commonplace.
Activists Alexandra Koroleva, in Kaliningrad, and Semyon
Simonov, in Sochi, were charged and faced possible
imprisonment for non-payment of arbitrary and heavy fines by
their respective NGOs.
Journalist Elena Milashina and lawyer Marina Dubrovina were
assaulted by a mob in a hotel in Grozny, Chechyna, on 6
February. A formal investigation started in March but was
manifestly ineffective. Meanwhile, Chechen head Ramzan
Kadyrov issued thinly veiled death threats against Elena
Milashina, with impunity.
Lawyer Mikhail Benyash's appeal against his criminal
conviction--which could lead to disbarment--started in
October and was still ongoing at year's end.
freedom of association
Laws on ``foreign agents'' and ``undesirable
organizations'' were actively used to smear independent NGOs,
deprive them of funding and severely penalize their members.
In December, further draconian legislative changes were
signed into law, including to extend the ``foreign agents''
provisions to NGOs staff, unregistered groups and
individuals.
In April, the education NGO Projectoria was forced to
register as a ``foreign agent'' to avoid fines while its
foreign donor, Project Harmony, was declared ``undesirable''.
In October, activist Yana Antonova from Krasnodar was
sentenced to 240 hours of forced labour for association with
an ``undesirable organization'', re-posting Open Russia-
branded materials online and taking part in single person
pickets. She was subsequently fined again under new
administration proceedings.
freedom of religion and belief
The prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses under ``extremism''
charges escalated, including in occupied Crimea, with a
growing number of convictions, and longer sentences. At
year's end, 362 people were under investigation or standing
trial, 39 had been convicted and six were imprisoned. Artem
Gerasimov, for example, was sentenced on appeal in June to
six years' imprisonment and a fine of RUB400,000 (US$5,144)
by the de facto Supreme Court of Crimea.
torture and other ill-treatment
Torture and other ill-treatment remained pervasive, and the
number of perpetrators convicted was negligible. Prosecutions
were typically for ``abuse of authority'' and resulted in
lenient sentences.
[[Page H2728]]
Twelve former prison officers from Yaroslavil colony were
sentenced to up to four years and three months' imprisonment
after a leaked video showed an inmate being beaten in 2017.
Six of them were immediately released on account of time
already spent in detention. The former head and deputy head
of the colony were acquitted.
unfair trials
Violations of the right to a fair trial remained common.
Detainees were denied meetings with their lawyers and a
number of trials continued to be closed to the public, with
the COVID-19 pandemic being often abusively used as a
justification.
In February and June respectively, seven young men from
Penza, and two from Saint Petersburg, received sentences of
up to 18 years' imprisonment under trumped-up terrorism
charges over their purported involvement with a non-existent
organization called ``Network''. Numerous allegations of
torture and other ill-treatment, and of fabrication of
evidence, were ignored.
Constitutional and legislative amendments further eroded
the right to a fair trial, including by giving the President
power to nominate the judges of the Constitutional and
Supreme Courts, and initiate the appointment of all federal
judges and dismissal of senior federal judges.
Counter-terrorism
Counterterrorism legislation was widely abused, often to
target dissent.
Journalist Abdulmumin Gadzhiev, from Dagestan, remained in
custody under fabricated charges of financing terrorism and
participation in terrorist and extremist organizations. His
trial started in November.
In occupied Crimea, allegations of membership of the
Islamist organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir (labelled as a
``terrorist'' movement by Russia in 2003) were widely used to
imprison ethnic Crimean Tatars. In June, Crimean human rights
defender Emir-Usein Kuku lost the appeal against his 12-year
prison sentence. In September, another Crimean human rights
defender, Server Mustafayev, was sentenced to 14 years in
prison.
In September, 19 men from Ufa, Bashkira, convicted for
alleged Hiz-ut-Tahrir membership and sentenced to between 10
and 24 years, lost their appeal, with one defendant's
sentence reduced by a year.
violence against women and girls
Proposals to introduce legislation on domestic violence
remained stalled in Parliament, while NGOs reported a sharp
increase in domestic violence following COVID-19 lockdown
measures.
In June, the ECtHR held a Polshina v. Russia that
deficiencies in the legal system related to domestic violence
violated the prohibitions of torture and discrimination. The
Court underlined Russia's consistent failure to investigate
abuse, and years-long tolerance of ``a climate which was
conducive to domestic violence''.
rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (lgbti)
people
LGBTI people continued to face discrimination and
persecution. Constitutional amendments redefined marriage as
a ``union between a man and woman'', reinforcing existing
limitations on same-sex couples.
LGBTI rights activist Yulia Tsvetkova was fined RUB75,000
(US$1,014) for posting online her drawings in support of
same-sex couples and faced other penalities, including
ongoing presecution for pornography relating to her body
positive drawings featuring female genitalia.
migrants' rights
Over a third of foreign labour migrants reported having
lost work owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and thousands were
stranded in Russia due to related border closures. In April,
a presidential decree eased work permit and residency rules
for migrants and refugees, and temporarily suspended forcible
returns of foreign and stateless individuals. Some regional
authorities ceased temporary detention of migrants, although
new decisions on forcible returns were also reported.
unlawful attacks
Evidence including witness statements, videos, photographs
and satellite imagery of seven air strikes against medical
facilities and schools by Russian forces, and four by Syrian
or Russian forces, between May 2019 and February 2020 in
Syria, corroborated allegations of serious violations of
international humanitarian law amounting to war crimes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, a successful meeting with Putin can only
be accomplished proceeding from a position of strength.
While I am deeply concerned the administration waived Nord Stream 2
sanctions, I am pleased President Biden invited President Zelensky to a
White House visit. I am also grateful the administration announced $150
million in security assistance to Ukraine.
This week, President Biden has an opportunity to pivot from the Trump
administration's disastrous legacy that left the transatlantic
relationship in tatters. The Congress and our caucus stand ready to
work with the administration to counter Russian aggression by
increasing Ukraine's security and democracy assistance.
Onward liberty. Onward Ukraine.
____________________