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DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN 

RIGHTS ABUSES IN RUSSIA: 

NO END IN SIGHT 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND 

COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

APRIL 26, 2017 

Printed for the use of the 

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe 

[CSCE 115–1–1] 

( 

Available via www.csce.gov 
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS 

HOUSE SENATE 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, 

Co-Chairman 

ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida 

ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama 

MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas 

STEVE COHEN, Tennessee 

RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina 

RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois 

SHIELA JACKSON LEE, Texas 

GWEN MOORE, Wisconsin 

ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi, 

Chairman 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas 

CORY GARDNER, Colorado 

MARCO RUBIO, Florida 

JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire 

THOM TILLIS, North Carolina 

TOM UDALL, New Mexico 

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island 

EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS 

Vacant, Department of State 

Vacant, Department of Commerce 

Vacant, Department of Defense 

[II] 
DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN 

RIGHTS ABUSES IN RUSSIA: 

NO END IN SIGHT 

COMMISSIONERS 

Page 

Hon. Roger F. Wicker, Chairman, Commission on Security 

and Cooperation in Europe ..................................................... 1 

Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, Ranking Member, Commission 

on Security and Cooperation in Europe ................................. 3 

Hon. Thom Tillis, Commissioner, Commission on Security 

and Cooperation in Europe ..................................................... 6 

Hon. Steve Cohen, Commissioner, Commission on Security 

and Cooperation in Europe ..................................................... 14 

Hon. Sheila Jackson Lee, Commissioner, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe .......................................... 19 

Hon. John Boozman, Commissioner, Commission on Security 

and Cooperation in Europe 

Hon. Mike Burgess, Commissioner, Commission on Security 

and Cooperation in Europe 

Hon. Randy Hultgren, Commissioner, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe 

WITNESSES 

Vladimir Kara-Murza, Vice-Chairman, Open Russia .............. 4 

Rachel Denber, Deputy Director of the Europe and Central 

Asia Division, Human Rights Watch ..................................... 9 

Dr. Daniel Calingaert, Executive Vice President, Freedom 

House ........................................................................................ 12 

[III] 
Page

IV 

APPENDICES 

Prepared statement of Hon. Roger F. Wicker ........................... 30 

Prepared statement of Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin .................... 31 

Prepared statement of Hon. Sheila Jackson Lee ...................... 32 

Prepared statement of Hon. Michael Burgess .......................... 33 

Prepared statement of Vladimir Kara-Murza ........................... 34 

Prepared statement of Dr. Daniel Calingaert ........................... 36 

MATERIAL FOR THE RECORD 

List of Individuals Recognized as Political Prisoners by the 

Memorial Human Rights Center ............................................ 42 
(1) 

DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN 

RIGHTS ABUSES IN RUSSIA: 

NO END IN SIGHT 

April 26, 2017 

COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE

WASHINGTON, DC 

The hearing was held at 9:33 a.m. in Room 124, Dirksen Senate 

Office Building, Washington, DC, Hon. Roger F. Wicker, Chairman, 

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, presiding. 

Commissioners present: Hon. Roger F. Wicker, Chairman, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Benjamin L. 

Cardin, Ranking Member, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Thom Tillis, Commissioner, Commission on 

Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Steve Cohen, Commissioner, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. 

Sheila Jackson Lee, Commissioner, Commission on Security and 

Cooperation in Europe; Hon. John Boozman, Commissioner, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Michael Burgess, Commissioner, Commission on Security and Cooperation in 

Europe; and Hon. Randy Hultgren, Commissioner, Commission on 

Security and Cooperation in Europe. 

Witnesses present: Vladimir Kara-Murza, Vice-Chairman, Open 

Russia; Rachel Denber, Deputy Director of the Europe and Central 

Asia Division, Human Rights Watch; and Dr. Daniel Calingaert, 

Executive Vice President, Freedom House. 

HON. ROGER WICKER, CHAIRMAN, COMMISSION ON SECURITY 

AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

Mr. WICKER. The hearing will come to order. 

Good morning, everyone. The 115th Congress has already, in its 

very first months, devoted considerable attention to threats posed 

by Russia to the states of the former USSR, to all of Europe and 

even to the United States through Russia’s interference in our very 

own elections—a matter that remains under investigation by multiple U.S. authorities. What we have not done yet—and this goes 

well back into the 114th Congress—is take a long, hard look at the 

continuing violations of democratic norms and human rights within 

Russia itself. 

So I’m happy today that my first hearing, as chairman of the 

U.S. Helsinki Commission, can focus on this very important and 

timely topic. I’m especially glad that we have such an expert panel 

of witnesses to testify today on the impact these abuses have, not 
2 

only on the people of the Russian Federation but on the larger 

international community, by effectively silencing the voices of the 

opposition within Russia and giving Mr. Putin and his regime a 

free hand to act with impunity abroad. 

We will begin with someone who is no stranger to me, to the Helsinki Commission, nor to the halls of Congress, thanks to his tireless work promoting democracy in Russia. Despite the Putin regime’s efforts to silence him, Mr. Vladimir Kara-Murza is still with 

us today, and I can’t think of anybody in a better position to tell 

us about the intense—and too often lethal—pressure being applied 

to brave Russians like him who engage in opposition politics. 

We’re also very fortunate to have representatives of two of the 

top independent organizations promoting human rights and freedom of expression across the globe, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House. Rachel Denber will be sharing with us highlights of 

her years of work following human rights issues in Russia for 

Human Rights Watch, including the shocking stories of murder and 

repression in Chechnya that have recently come to light. Human 

Rights Watch has been the only international organization actively 

following this case. And Daniel Calingaert is the executive vice 

president of Freedom House, an organization that needs no introduction here. 

Freedom House’s annual publications—Freedom in the World, 

Freedom of the Press and Freedom of the Net—have been invaluable in helping Congress and opponents of freedom of expression 

and democracy all of over the world track both progress and backsliding on these fundamental freedoms around the globe. In the 

case of Russia, the trends have not been positive, and we look forward to hearing much more about that. 

Now, a word about the portraits of the people that you will notice 

in the room here to my right—and which you’ll see in the room 

today—these represent several well-known political prisoners currently behind bars in Russia. We will hear about many of them 

during this morning’s hearing. The people portrayed here represent 

only a fraction of the dozens of political prisoners held in Russia. 

Indeed, some groups following this issue, like the NGO Memorial, 

estimate the number is in the hundreds. We wanted to be able to 

help our audience see at least a few of the faces behind some of 

the names you will hear today, and we will, of course, have much 

more information on political prisoners in the material that will be 

submitted for the record. 

This hearing is intended to accomplish two things. First of all, 

we want to draw much needed attention to the ongoing serious 

abuses of human rights in Russia to remind all members of Congress and the American people that the situation in Russia is grave 

and could continue to deteriorate. Secondly, with our witnesses’ assistance, we would like to evaluate how our current approach to 

human rights abuses in Russia is working and to consider what we 

can do to get things back on a positive trajectory in Russia, for the 

Russian people ultimately. A Russia that fully respects all of its 

citizens’ human rights, that allows for full freedom of expression 

and religion and for free and fair elections, will be a place where 

all Russians can prosper. Those improvements would also make 

Russia a much better neighbor and would go a long way toward 
3 

promoting peace and security in the entire Eurasian region. So we 

have a lot to discuss. 

And, with that, it’s my pleasure to yield to my good friend Senator Cardin for his opening statement. Senator Cardin. 

HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, RANKING MEMBER, COMMISSION 

ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

Mr. CARDIN. Well, Senator Wicker, thank you very much for convening this extremely important hearing on democracy and human 

rights in Russia. 

Democracy and human rights and respect for human rights is 

very much in the hearts and minds of Russians, but not in its leader, Mr. Putin, and it’s important that we have this hearing to underscore our commitment to the Russian people and their quest to 

be respected for human rights. 

I must tell you, I am extremely impressed by the spirit of the 

people in Russia. Under extremely dangerous circumstances, they 

are taking to the streets to protest against Mr. Putin’s corruption. 

We saw the truck drivers’ protest against these corrupt taxes that 

are being collected from them. The Russian people are showing tremendous courage under extremely dangerous circumstances. 

So, Mr. Chairman, I thank you very much for this hearing, and 

particularly for the posters and for the faces, because there are millions of people being persecuted in Russia today. But as we found, 

without personalizing it, it’s difficult to get the attention that the 

international community should be paying to what is happening 

today in Russia. You and I and others were able to do that by the 

Magnitsky Global Accountability Act, by focusing on the tragedy 

that occurred to Sergei Magnitsky, and it not only caused the 

United States to act, but the international community also responded when they saw the outrageous way that one individual 

was treated by Mr. Putin in Russia. 

We’re at the Helsinki Commission, and it’s interesting that if you 

look at the Helsinki Final Act, in Moscow, the OSCE participating 

states explicitly acknowledged that, and I quote, ‘‘Issues relating to 

human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of 

law are of international concern, and the respect for these rights 

and freedoms constitutes one of the foundations of the international order.’’ That was the declaration that was issued in Moscow under the OSCE. So we have a direct interest and responsibility, every member state, to challenge when other states are not 

doing what is required under the Helsinki Final Act, and Russia 

clearly is violating those commitments. 

I appreciate all three witnesses that are here, but I want to particularly acknowledge Vladimir Kara-Murza. And I thank you very 

much for your presence, and it’s nice to see you here with your 

wife. 

As Chairman Wicker pointed out, by the posters that we are displaying here, that by showing the courage of individuals we can get 

more action. And Mr. Kara-Murza, you have shown tremendous 

courage in standing up for what is right for the Russian people at 

the risk of your own life, not once but on other occasions, and it’s 

good to see you healthier today than the last time I saw you. 
4 

Mr. Chairman, I’m going to read what our witness said when he 

testified before Congress—now, it’s been almost two years ago. This 

is what he said two years ago: 

‘‘Our friends in the West often ask how they can be helpful 

to the cause of human rights and democracy in Russia, 

and the answer is very simple: Please stay true to your 

values. We are not asking for your support. It is our task 

to fight for democracy and the rule of law in our country. 

The only thing we ask from Western leaders is that they 

stop supporting Mr. Putin by treating him as a respectable 

and worthy partner and by allowing Mr. Putin’s cronies to 

use Western countries as havens for their looted wealth.’’ 

That was good advice two years ago, and that advice remains the 

same today. Tragically, the numbers are increasing of those who 

are at risk. Just a few days ago, a St. Petersburg journalist succumbed to his injuries after being beaten into a coma on March the 

9th. His case is a reminder that many attacks have resulted not 

only in loss of life, but in some cases have left people maimed and 

disabled for life. 

Mr. Chairman, I also welcome the opportunity to focus on the political prisoners and others detained in violation of Principle VII of 

the Helsinki Final Act: the right of people to know and act upon 

their human rights. The cases of these seven detainees have been 

well documented by Memorial, the Russian civil society organization established to document the crimes of Soviet repression. 

If I may, Mr. Chairman, I would like to include in the record Memorial’s list of political prisoners, which was submitted at the 

OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw in 

September. 

Mr. WICKER. Without objection. 

Mr. CARDIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I regret that Secretary 

Tillerson did not meet with independent civil society groups like 

Memorial when he visited Moscow—foregoing an opportunity to 

communicate U.S. support for an open and democratic Russia. 

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses, and I thank them 

very much for being here. 

Mr. WICKER. Thank you, Senator Cardin. 

And we begin our testimony by recognizing Mr. Kara-Murza. 

VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, VICE CHAIRMAN, OPEN RUSSIA 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Cardin, esteemed members 

of the Commission, thank you very much for holding this important 

and timely hearing and for the opportunity to testify before you. 

This coming Saturday, April 29th, pro-democracy activists across 

Russia will take part in a nationwide campaign organized by the 

Open Russia Movement with a single message: enough. They will 

hold rallies, and send petitions to the Kremlin calling on Vladimir 

Putin to leave the presidency when his current term—officially the 

third, in reality the fourth—expires next spring. 

Mr. Putin has been in power for 17 years. There is now an entire 

generation of Russians who have no memory of any other government. This longevity has been the result of a deliberate suppression of the opposition, independent media and civil society and of 
5 

continuous violations of the rights and freedoms guaranteed to 

Russian citizens by our own constitution and by our country’s commitments under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in 

Europe. Chief among these is the right to freely elect one’s own 

government. After March of 2000, not a single national election in 

Russia, presidential or parliamentary, was assessed by OSCE monitors as free and fair. 

Unequal media access, the removal of opposition candidates from 

the ballot and outright fraud have become the unfortunate norm in 

Russian elections. The result has been a parliament devoid of real 

opposition, not a place for discussion in the words of its own former 

speaker. Major media outlets have also long ceased to be places for 

discussion. Having taken control of all national television networks, 

the main source of news for Russian citizens, the Kremlin turned 

them into propaganda outlets that offer laudatory coverage of the 

authorities and portray Mr. Putin’s political opponents as a fifth 

column that works at the behest of foreign governments. Many of 

these opponents are in prison. According to Memorial, Russia’s 

most respected human rights organization, there are now 115 political prisoners in Russia, a number comparable with the late Soviet 

period. 

And I’d like to thank the staff members of the Helsinki Commission for putting up these portraits of some of the ones who are political prisoners in Vladimir Putin’s Russia today. They include opposition activists and their family members, such as Sergei 

Udaltsov, Oleg Navalny and Darya Polyudova, citizens jailed for 

taking part in peaceful antigovernment demonstrations, including 

construction engineer Ivan Nepomnyashchikh and history lecturer 

Dmitry Buchenkov. The latter was not even present at the rally for 

which he was charged. But a little Kafka never stopped the Russian judicial system. They include Ukrainians arrested after the 

annexation of Crimea, such as the filmmaker Oleg Sentsov. And I 

believe there will be a special briefing here at the Helsinki Commission this week focusing on his case. They include Aleksei 

Pichugin, the remaining hostage of the Yukos case that saw the 

head of Russia’s largest oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, imprisoned for more than a decade for having the tenacity to support 

opposition parties and expose government corruption. 

Sometimes political opponents are dealt with without a recourse 

to formal procedures. In October of 2015 at a hearing of this Commission, I recalled the near-fatal poisoning I had experienced in 

Moscow earlier that year. Today, I could take that statement and 

repeat it word for word because I have now experienced it for the 

second time, also in Moscow, this past February—an identical picture, poisoning by an undefined substance leading to multiple 

organ failure and a coma. Doctors estimated my chance to survive 

at 5 percent, so I’m very fortunate to be sitting here today, certainly very grateful. Many of our colleagues have not been as fortunate. Several opposition activists, independent journalists, 

anticorruption campaigners and whistleblowers have lost their 

lives in the last 17 years. 

Two years ago, in the most brazen political assassination in modern Russia, opposition leader and former Deputy Prime Minister 

Boris Nemtsov was murdered on a bridge in front of the Kremlin. 
6 

The official investigation into his assassination is stalling. While 

the alleged perpetrators, all of them, linked to the Kremlinappointed leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, are currently on 

trial, the authorities have not pursued those who had ordered and 

organized the killing and have refused to even question potential 

persons of interest, including Mr. Kadyrov and the commander of 

the Russian National Guard, General Viktor Zolotov. 

Under the statutes of the OSCE and contrary to repeated claims 

by Kremlin officials, human rights abuses in member states cannot 

be dismissed as an internal affair and are, I quote, ‘‘matters of direct and legitimate concern to all participating states,’’ end of 

quote. And Senator Cardin has already referenced this fundamental principle of the OSCE. 

It is important that our OSCE partners speak openly and honestly about what is happening in Russia. It is also important, since 

human rights are a matter of international concern, that there be 

international accountability for those who violate them. The United 

States does have a mechanism for such accountability in the 

Magnitsky Act, of which the ranking member is the lead author 

and the chairman is one of the original cosponsors, the act that individually targets human rights abusers. And it is very important 

that this law continues to be implemented to its full extent. 

The main responsibility for ensuring respect for human rights, 

the rule of law and democratic principles in Russia lies, of course, 

with Russian citizens themselves. And I would respectfully disagree with the subtitle of this hearing, that there is no end in sight 

to the abuses. Increasingly, the young generation in Russia, the 

very generation that grew up under Vladimir Putin, is demanding 

respect and accountability from those in power. 

Last month, protests against government corruption swept across 

Russia with tens of thousands of people, mostly young people, taking to the streets, despite arrests and intimidation. This movement 

will continue and these growing demands for accountability are the 

best guarantee that Russia will one day become a country where 

citizens can exercise the rights and freedoms to which they are entitled. 

I thank you very much, once again, for holding this hearing and 

I look forward to any questions you may have during the questionand-answer round. Thank you. 

Mr. WICKER. Thank you, Mr. Kara-Murza. 

And I’m going to defer my questioning until the end. But let me 

just say on behalf of the Commission that you look great, particularly considering what you’ve gone through. And we are just 

thrilled that you are up and about and healthy and able to testify 

today. 

At this point, I’m going to yield my time to Mr. Tillis for a fiveminute round, and then Mr. Cardin, and then we’ll go in turn after 

that. So thank you much. 

Senator Tillis. 

HON. THOM TILLIS, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON 

SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

Mr. TILLIS. Thank you. And thank you all for being here. 
7 

I was at a Banking Committee hearing about a month ago. And 

one of the subjects was Russian sanctions. And there was a question asked that was, ‘‘How rich is Vladimir Putin?’’ And everybody 

was coming up with all kinds of calculations. My response to that, 

‘‘he’s as rich as he wants to be because he will take whatever he 

wants and he will use every device in his power in what seems to 

be an unbridled fashion.’’ So I wanted to give you my predisposition 

on the leadership over there. It’s not a positive one. 

I also think it’s important for us to make sure that if someone 

from Russia happens to watch this on video, this is not about the 

Russian people; this is for the Russian people and the abuses that 

I think are well-documented. In fact, some of the attempts on your 

life, some of the murders look like they’re right out of a Tom 

Clancy novel or something. It’s almost like you’d think it was fictional, but it’s actually happening. And I don’t think, even among 

the American people, when you see a Time magazine that has 

Vladimir Putin on it, ‘‘The Most Powerful Man Alive,’’ you could almost conjure that up as actually respectable leaders who have had 

that title in the past. 

So has the pace of the acts, like the acts against you, the murders, do you think that they have escalated or are they more or less 

running at the same rate? Where are we now in terms of Russia 

and actors in Russia feeling any pressure from our knowledge that 

these acts are going on? And I’m happy to have anyone answer that 

question. 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Thank you very much, Senator Tillis. And I 

think you’re certainly right to say that Mr. Putin is as rich as he 

can be. And it has been said about the people who are currently 

in power in Russia that this group of people doesn’t just rule Russia, it also owns it. And I think that’s very true about the nature 

of the regime we have, the kleptocratic, oligarchic regime in many 

ways. And when the Panama Papers came out about a year ago, 

that was, of course, just the tiniest tip of the iceberg, that showed 

as one of the revelations that there were $2 billion worth of assets 

owned by Mr. Putin’s close friend, the cellist Sergei Roldugin. And 

this presumably is the way that this money is kept. I mean, presumably it’s not in Mr. Putin’s own name, he’s more clever than 

that. It’s kind of stashed away in the names of other people. 

And we used to say—we said in Moscow last year that we all 

thought that Paul McCartney was the world’s richest musician. 

Now we know it’s Sergei Roldugin who is nobody you probably ever 

heard of, but he’s the one who has all these assets. 

In terms of the pace of the repression, the crackdown, he certainly began gradually when he came to power 17 years ago. In 

fact, I think it could be said that he borrowed Benito Mussolini’s 

tactic when it came to dismantling the democratic institutions in 

Russia. And Mussolini’s advice was to—he said it once, ‘‘pluck the 

chicken feather by feather to lessen the squawking,’’ so you do it 

gradually, you do it one by one. So he went after independent 

media and he went after the political opposition. He went after the 

institutions, like Parliament, step by step by step. And, of course, 

the pace of the crackdown certainly has massively accelerated in 

the past five years since the big protests that began in 2011, 2012. 
8 

And the number of political prisoners we have in Russia today, 

115 according to Memorial—actually I think it will be updated 

today or tomorrow because there was one more person sentenced 

yesterday in a political case, a well-known nationalist, Dmitry 

Dyomushkin is his name—this number is really well comparable to 

what we had in the Andropov-Brezhnev era. When Andrei 

Sakharov wrote his Nobel Prize lecture in 1975, he listed 126 political prisoners in the Soviet Union—we’re now up to 115. That 

wasn’t an exhaustive list back then, probably this one isn’t either. 

And, of course, Russia is much smaller than the Soviet Union was, 

so you can compare the scale. 

And in terms of the mortality rate among people who have 

crossed the Kremlin’s path in one way or another, it certainly has 

been abnormally high in defying any kind of statistical model. And 

as I mentioned in my prepared testimony, the assassination of 

Boris Nemtsov, the leader of the Russian opposition, two years ago 

was the most brazen, the most high-profile political assassination 

in Russia in decades. And it basically continues to be surrounded 

by impunity. 

Mr. TILLIS. In my remaining time, I did want to get one other 

question in. I have a Judiciary Confirmation hearing that I have 

to go to. I would like to stay for the entire hearing. 

But how would you gauge—the United States is one nation that 

really needs to stand against some of the activities that we’re seeing in Russia. How would you rate the international community in 

general in terms of their focus and their message and their level 

of expressed concern for what we see going on in Russia? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Well, the U.S. has certainly led in this because 

you didn’t limit yourselves to words, you went into action. And 

four-and-a-half years ago, this Congress passed the Sergei 

Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act which for the first 

time—this was really a groundbreaking principle—for the first 

time it introduced sanctions not against a country, not even against 

a government, per se, but against specific individuals responsible 

for human rights abuse. And this is absolutely fundamental, because going back to what we were just talking about, the nature 

of this regime that we have now is that these people abuse the 

rights of their own citizens, but they themselves want to use all the 

privileges, including financial privileges, that the West has to offer 

for themselves and for their families. And this double standard has 

to end and the U.S. has led in ending this double standard. 

And I think it’s very important that the Magnitsky law continues 

to be implemented in this country to the full extent. And there are 

now other countries that are following your example. Estonia became the first European Union country to pass a similar measure. 

The U.K. is now in the process of doing so. Canada is in the process 

of doing so. And so I think this is the most important benchmark 

and it’s important that it continues to be implemented. 

Mr. TILLIS. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

Mr. WICKER. And thank you, Senator Tillis. 

We departed from regular order to accommodate the senator, 

who is on his way to another very important hearing. But at this 

point we will resume with the testimony of our two other distinguished panelists, the first being Rachel Denber, deputy director of 
9 

the Europe and Central Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. She 

specializes in countries of the former Soviet Union. Previously, Ms. 

Denber directed Human Rights Watch’s Moscow office and did field 

research and advocacy in Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, 

Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Estonia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and 

Tajikistan. 

So, Ms. Denber, we are delighted to have you here and we welcome your testimony. 

RACHEL DENBER, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE EUROPE AND 

CENTRAL ASIA DIVISION, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 

Ms. DENBER. Thank you so much, Chairman Wicker. 

Thank you, members of the Commission, for inviting me here 

today. 

And I just want to personally acknowledge Vladimir KaraMurza’s courage. It’s an honor to be testifying together with you 

and also together with our colleague from Freedom House. 

I have been monitoring human rights in Russia, in the former 

Soviet Union, for 25 years now. And I can say that I want to agree 

with what Vladimir said, that Russia is today more repressive than 

it has ever been in the post-Soviet era. I think that Vladimir and 

also you, Chairman Wicker, have talked about some of the tools 

that the government is using to try to—I want to emphasize ‘‘try 

to’’—silence independent critics. It’s using a wide range of tools 

through tightening control over free expression, over free assembly, 

over free association, over NGOs. 

And I want to add two other things about this crackdown on civil 

society that has grown increasingly vicious, and that’s the way that 

the Kremlin-controlled broadcasters have been portraying Western 

democracies as working to destabilize Russia and the rest of the 

world and how these Kremlin-controlled broadcasters have—and 

Kremlin-controlled media or Kremlin-loyal media—have also been 

urging Russians to mobilize against this threat and have branded 

dissenting voices as paid agents of the West working against Russia. I think it’s really important to understand how the government 

has tried to mobilize the public mood in a very poisonous way. 

I want to talk about two things, and one is something that Chairman Wicker referred to—what’s happening in Chechnya today. And 

I think it’s also very important and relevant in the context of what 

you mentioned, Ramzan Kadyrov and his association with 

Nemtsov’s murder, and with Chechnya. 

As you know, there has been a campaign inside Chechnya to 

round up and beat, torture men who were believed to be gay in 

Chechnya. This is a campaign that has been very rightly condemned by the U.S. Government, and by members of this Commission and other members of Congress. 

You know, this campaign is targeting these men to try to get 

them to hand over the contacts of other men who are believed to 

be gay and to, again, mobilize society against them. When they are 

released, they are at great risk of persecution by their own families, of hate crimes, because Chechnya is a highly traditional society, and being gay in Chechnya is considered a stain on family 

honor. 
10 

I think that as a result of the pressure that has been mobilized 

by the United States Government, by governments all over Europe 

and by international organizations, Putin eventually did discuss 

the allegations of these roundups with Ramzan Kadyrov, who owes 

his political career to Vladimir Putin. You know, of course, Kadyrov 

denied that these roundups were happening, that this torture was 

happening, but the facts are there. The facts are there. Human 

Rights Watch has done our own interviews. We’ve confirmed the 

roundups. We’ve confirmed the forced outings to families. And 

we’ve also confirmed the very visceral threats that Chechen officials have issued against the newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, that 

made these allegations public for the first time. 

The second thing I wanted to address was the broader issues of 

political prisoners in Russia. I’m very happy to see the posters and 

these faces. That’s incredibly important to actually see these faces 

and realize that they’re actual people with actual families. Human 

Rights Watch, we don’t have our own comprehensive list of politically motivated arrests. We also follow and pay great attention and 

liaise with the Memorial Human Rights Center, which keeps this 

comprehensive list. 

I think it would be an overstatement to say that the Russian 

Government systematically arrests and imprisons dissidents, political-opposition activists and government critics. I think that the 

government for now doesn’t need to engage in mass arrests. It has 

other tools in the toolbox, tools that induce self-censorship. People 

who they want to intimidate are people who are online, who are 

active on the Internet, or people who might participate in protests. 

Vladimir already set out the main groups of people who are targets of intimidation and who are targets of arrests. They include 

protesters, not only from four years ago, the Bolotnaya case, but 

also the people who marched last month against corruption. A second group is other people who are targeted with arbitrary cases of 

extremism; these include people who are imprisoned for sharing or 

for posting something on the Internet having to do with government—their criticism of Russia’s actions in Syria, also having to do 

with religious insults. And I can give a couple of examples in question and answer. 

Probably the largest category of new cases of politically motivated arrests have to do with Ukraine, either Ukrainian citizens 

who have been arrested on a range of charges—and I especially 

want to point out Oleg Sentsov, as Vladimir had, and to point out 

also that the third anniversary of his arrest is coming up May 

10th. I wish I could be here for tomorrow’s briefing on that. So 

they’re either Ukrainian citizens or they are people who have spoken out against Russia’s actions in Ukraine, whether it’s the young 

woman, Darya Polyudova, who did nothing more than make a 

harmless post on her VKontakte account, to a very small closed 

group, or others who criticize Russia’s occupation of Crimea. 

There’s even a librarian, Natalia Sharina, who’s currently under 

house arrest because of suspicion that some of the books in the 

Ukrainian-language library in Moscow, where she is the librarian, 

that there were a couple of dozen books that the government has 

said are extremist materials. And also there’s a large group of Cri-
11 

mean Tatars who have been arrested or who are facing criminal 

charges. 

And I would also say that there’s a fifth group, and that’s people 

who simply face political retribution by the regime. And that’s either people like Oleg Navalny, the opposition leader Alexei 

Navalny,s brother—I’m very glad to see his photograph up here— 

and also people inside Chechnya who have criticized Ramzan 

Kadyrov, who are in jail now and facing completely false drug 

charges. 

I’m really glad that you asked what it is that the United States 

could be doing. I would put forth four recommendations. 

One is specifically about the anti-gay campaign in Chechnya. It’s 

to stay strongly focused on this, to continue to bring pressure on 

the Kremlin to stop these purges and to insist that the Kremlin ensure that they never happen again. I think that the criticism that’s 

been brought forward so far is the only reason why Putin raised 

this issue with Kadyrov in the first place. 

The second thing the United States can do is to actually understand that men from Chechnya who are gay or believed to be gay 

have absolutely nowhere to go, and they will be targeted. They will 

continue to be targeted, whether it’s by the regime or by their families, and that the U.S. should do whatever it can to help these men 

find safe sanctuary, especially in the United States. 

The other two recommendations are quite general, and that’s to 

continue full support for outlets like Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Voice of America. These are incredibly important sources—important and high-quality sources of information in Russia and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union. 

And then, finally, I’m so glad you mentioned that when Secretary 

Tillerson went to Moscow, he did not meet with Memorial. We were 

quite surprised that Secretary Tillerson, during his trip to Moscow, 

met with no civil-society leaders. It’s not that every single time a 

secretary of state travels to Russia that they must meet civilsociety leaders. But on his first trip, I would have expected Secretary Tillerson to meet with them. 

And I think we need to make sure that when high-level U.S. 

VIPs travel to Russia, they should meet with civil-society leaders— 

not only to show support, but also to listen to what they have to 

say, because their analysis of what’s going on in Russia is incredibly important—and also to find ways to raise those issues in meetings that they have with Russian officials and to show that meeting with civil-society leaders is a normal thing to do in a strong democracy. 

I think that I will stop there. Thank you very much for inviting 

me to speak today. 

Mr. WICKER. Thank you very much, Ms. Denber. 

Dr. Daniel Calingaert is executive vice president at Freedom 

House. He oversees Freedom House’s contributions to policy debate 

on democracy and human rights issues and outreach to the U.S. 

Congress, foreign governments, media, and Freedom House supporters. He previously supervised Freedom House’s civil society 

and media programs worldwide. 

He has taught at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins University, 

also at the American University School of Public Affairs. And it’s 
12 

worth noting that he graduated with highest honors in international relations from Tufts University and earned both a Master’s in Philosophy and a Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University. 

Dr. Calingaert, we’re delighted to have you with us. 

DR. DANIEL CALINGAERT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, 

FREEDOM HOUSE 

Dr. CALINGAERT. Thank you, Chairman Wicker. 

And thank you, honorable members of the Commission, for the 

opportunity to testify. 

I ask that my full written statement be submitted for the record. 

Mr. WICKER. Without objection. 

Dr. CALINGAERT. Thank you. 

Repression in Russia echoes across Eurasia and beyond. President Putin was the primary author of what we call the modern authoritarian’s playbook. And it’s a playbook that he developed starting in the early 2000s and refined over time. And this, in essence, 

is the fac ̧ade of pluralism that really masks political control. Other 

dictators have picked up the playbook and used it. 

A key component of the playbook is suppressing civil society. We 

heard earlier about restrictive NGO laws, criticism of foreign support for local civil society. And these are methods that we’ve seen 

replicated not only in neighboring countries, but even as far afield 

as Ethiopia and Venezuela. 

In 2012, Russia passed its foreign-agent law. And we’ve seen 

similar legislation enacted in Kazakhstan. It was debated but ultimately rejected in Kyrgyzstan; and most recently there are reports 

that foreign-agent legislation is being drafted in Hungary, which 

I’d note used to be held up as an example of democratic transition 

and progress. 

The foreign-agent bill not only stifles civil society but fuels a poisonous narrative of civil society as paid foreign agents who are trying to impose alien agendas. And this is really a distraction. It’s 

a way for President Putin and other dictators to shift attention 

from the real issue, which is their efforts to deny citizens’ fundamental freedoms. 

The foreign-agent bills and other restrictions on civil society are 

echoed in Eurasia and other places. If you look at Russia’s manipulation of the media, that is directly affecting countries in the neighborhood and further on. And when I say media manipulation, I’m 

talking about really a sophisticated form of influence that is designed to undermine trust in democratic institutions. And this is a 

combination of facts, distortions and outright fabrications designed 

to shape public opinion. It often relies on social media to amplify 

rumors, blatant falsehoods, and reach a significant audience. And 

in some cases the buzz on social media causes coverage in mainstream media, as we saw in the French elections with rumors 

about the candidate Emmanuel Macron. 

Russian television has extensive reach and influences public perceptions. According to a Gallup poll, residents in most of Eurasia 

find that the Russian media’s coverage of the situation in Ukraine 

and Crimea is more reliable than Western media coverage. The 

large reach of Russian TV can shape public discourse in other 
13 

countries. For instance, the whole debate in Kyrgyzstan on foreign 

funding for civil society was really driven by Russian TV. 

And even where the reach is limited, it can gain traction. To cite 

other examples, in Germany there was a false report of a 13-yearold Russian-German girl supposedly raped by migrants. Again, it 

was fueled by social media. And even in the U.S. elections last 

year, there are certain stories that sort of gained traction through, 

you know, dubious websites and social media accounts likely connected to Russia. 

Russia is seeking to undercut the ability of international organizations to protect human rights and democratic standards; for instance, impeding this election of a new OSCE representative on 

freedom of the media. This obstruction is part of a broader effort 

to revise the European order. A key component obviously is the 

Helsinki Final Act, which in essence was a grand bargain whereby 

the U.S. and Western Europe accepted existing borders, and the 

Soviet Union and its allies recognized the human dimension of security. As is evident from Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, Russia doesn’t respect human rights nor existing borders. 

Unless the U.S. actively defends the European order, Russia will 

continue to erode it and Europe will grow less stable. The expansion of Russian influence is likely to reduce support for the transatlantic alliance and weaken resistance to Russia’s violations of territorial integrity. 

The spread of democracy serves U.S. economic interests as well. 

Corruption and weak rule of law put U.S. businesses at a disadvantage. And restrictions on media limit access of American companies, as was seen by Russia’s decision to block LinkedIn. 

When the U.S. defends human rights, it is not imposing its values on other countries. It is holding other governments to account 

for failing to follow their own laws and international human-rights 

commitments. The United States lives up to its international commitments. It’s only fair that we expect Russia and others to do the 

same. 

I have several recommendations to counter the spread of Russia’s 

repressive practices and media manipulation. 

First is to staunchly defend the norms that are established by 

the OSCE and other international conventions and respond firmly 

and vocally to violations. 

Second, the U.S. should lead democratic countries in publicly 

criticizing and diplomatically pushing back on initiatives to replicate Russia’s repressive practices; for instance, the introduction of 

the foreign-agent law in Hungary. 

We call on the Congress to push for full enforcement of the 

Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act and the Global 

Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, and specifically urge 

the President to add more senior Russian officials to the Russia 

sanctions list and to impose sanctions on officials under the Global 

Magnitsky Act. 

We support robust continued funding for U.S. foreign broadcasting—RFE/RL, VOA—even mindful of the current budget environment and likely reductions in federal spending. We think it’s 

critical to support independent Russian-language media, and also 
14 

to continue assistance for human-rights and civil-society activists, 

following their lead on what forms of assistance are most helpful. 

A firm U.S. response to the spread of Russia’s repressive practices is critical to defend American values, protect the European 

order and advance U.S. security and economic interests in Europe 

and beyond. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. WICKER. Thank you very much. Thank you, all three, for 

your testimony. 

And before I go to Representative Cohen, who is next on the list, 

I want to take a matter of personal privilege and ask Orest 

Deychakiwsky to stand. [Applause.] Now, just remain standing for 

a moment. [Laughter.] 

Orest has faithfully served the Helsinki Commission for 35 years. 

And this is not only his last hearing, but actually his last day of 

service for the Commission. So I want to thank you and ask unanimous consent that, when this hearing adjourns today, that we adjourn in honor of Orest Deychakiwsky and his 35 years of service. 

Without objection. [Applause.] 

And I might mention that Representative Dr. Burgess has not 

been able to stay with us, but asked that a statement be included 

in the record. And, without objection, that will be done. 

Mr. Cohen, you are recognized to question these witnesses. 

HON. STEVE COHEN, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON 

SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

Mr. COHEN. Thank you, Senator Wicker. And thank you for holding this important hearing at this time. 

Firstly, I have to admit I was a bit remiss at preparing. And so, 

Mr. Kara-Murza, I was surprised to see you here. I didn’t realize 

you were going to be a witness. And I’ve kept up with your travels. 

I can recommend a new path of travel and a new travel adviser. 

But I’m so pleased that you’re here and in good health. I was very 

concerned about you and read all the articles. You’re a brave man. 

I care about human rights greatly, and that’s why I’m on this 

Commission. But I do want to ask you—and anybody who would 

like to help if they have any answers—do you have any knowledge 

about any involvement of Russia in our elections? Do you have people that you had contact with in Russia that have advised you or 

given you opinions about what Russia might have done to manipulate, through the media, our elections, or to hack our elections or 

to be involved, or people they may have had contact with? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Thank you, Congressman. Thank you for your 

kind words. I hope you were surprised in a good way to see me. 

Mr. COHEN. A very good way. 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Thank you very much. 

Mr. COHEN. A very good way. 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. On election interference, I certainly don’t have 

any inside information. As you can imagine, I don’t have too many 

interlocutors in the current Kremlin administration. [Laughter.] 

But the Putin regime has been known to interfere in elections in 

other countries for many years. So when this talk began, there was 

nothing surprising, frankly, or new about this. They’ve tried to 

interfere and did interfere in elections in Ukraine, in Georgia, in 
15 

Moldova, and all these other countries. And if they were able to do 

all of that over seven years, basically without any significant reaction from the international community, you know, why not try to 

upgrade a little bit? 

So I don’t have any specific inside information, but it certainly 

would not come as a surprise if there were any facts on this particular issue. Thank you. 

Mr. COHEN. Do any of the other witnesses have any opinions to 

offer? 

Dr. CALINGAERT. I don’t have information beyond what’s in the 

public record. 

Mr. COHEN. Thank you. 

The killing of your friend, Mr. Nemtsov—it’s alleged that these 

two or three guys were Chechens or agents of Ramzan. They 

haven’t spoken? Do they think they’re innocent? Or what’s their 

story? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Thank you, Congressman. This is a very important question. And as you can appreciate, it’s a very personally 

difficult issue for all of us. But in terms of the investigation, there’s 

currently a trial ongoing. There are five defendants, all of them 

Chechens, all of them directly linked to Ramzan Kadyrov, the 

Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya. 

And at the moment of the assassination on February 27, 2015, 

the alleged gunman, a man by the name of Zaur Dadaev, was actually a serving officer of the interior ministry of the Russian Federation. This is why the trial is going on in a military court, as opposed to a civilian court, because he was a serving officer. 

And so I don’t want to say anything definitively before there’s a 

verdict. The verdict is expected at the end of May, from what we 

believe. But this is only the lowest level of people who are on trial. 

Investigations have been unable or unwilling to go beyond this 

unspoken glass ceiling, to go to any of the higher-ranking people. 

For example, there were reports last year in RBK, an independent Russian newspaper, that General Alexander Bastrykin, 

who is head of the Russian investigative committee, who’s also now 

on the U.S. Magnitsky list for human-rights abuses, has personally 

vetoed attempts by lower-level investigators to question a man 

named Ruslan Geremeyev, one of the key persons in Kadyrov’s entourage, to name him as an organizer in the assassination. 

Bastrykin personally vetoed this twice. 

And despite the numerous requests by lawyers acting for Boris 

Nemtsov’s family to question Kadyrov himself; to question Adam 

Delimkhanov, who is a member of the Russian State Duma, the 

right-hand man of Kadyrov; to question General Viktor Zolotov, 

who is now the commander of the National Guard of the Russian 

Federation, who was previously commander of the interior forces of 

the interior ministry—he was actually officially the superior of 

Dadaev, who is the accused gunman—but again, both investigators 

and courts have refused to even question these people. 

So we’re seeing this glass ceiling on the investigation. They’re 

unable or unwilling to go higher than the lowest level of alleged 

perpetrators. And this is why we think it is very important to have 

international attention and international mechanisms, to the extent we can, involved in this investigation. We have been able—and 
16 

this is thanks to the efforts of Zhanna Nemtsov, Boris Nemtsov’s 

daughter, and her lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, who have been able 

to push for a decision by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, of which, of course, Russia is a member—to have a 

special rapporteur appointed to oversee this investigation. 

Unfortunately, there’s really nothing that can replace a national 

investigation of this case, unless the country itself, the government 

of the country itself, requests it—like, for instance, the Lebanese 

did with the Hariri case, or Pakistan did with Benazir Bhutto’s 

case at the U.N. Security Council. Needless to say, Mr. Putin’s regime is not going to do that. 

So the only thing we can do in the absence of an international 

mechanism for investigation is to have international attention, an 

international oversight of the investigation. So we would urge our 

partner countries in the OSCE also, including the United States, 

to raise this issue, to talk about this, to ask questions in OSCE 

Parliamentary Assembly settings and elsewhere, in bilateral contacts, when U.S. officials go to Moscow or when Russian officials 

come here. And there are bilateral meetings. It’s important to raise 

this issue, not to let them sweep it under the carpet and forget. 

And there’s one more issue I would like to mention in the context 

of your question. They haven’t just killed Boris Nemtsov himself. 

They’re also trying to kill his memory. They have rejected—by 

they, I mean Russian authorities—have rejected numerous petitions and initiatives for any kind of commemoration of his name. 

They wouldn’t even let us put up a small sign, a street name, nothing. 

They actually come and steal flowers from the bridge. People still 

bring flowers to the spot where he was killed. Every night, Moscow 

police come in and they steal the flowers. You should see the videos—it’s mind-boggling—of these grown men in uniforms running 

around like thieves in the night and stealing flowers from the 

bridge. 

So it’s very important—while we cannot do anything to commemorate him in Russia, for obvious reasons, it is important to 

commemorate him where it is possible to do so, which is outside 

of Russia. And there’s actually a congressional bill of which Chairman Wicker is a cosponsor—it’s S. 459 in the Senate; it’s H.R. 1863 

in the House—that would re-designate the address of the Russian 

embassy in Washington, D.C. as 1 Boris Nemtsov Plaza. And this 

is very important, I can tell you, not just for Boris’s family, but for 

many friends and colleagues back in Russia. So, if that were to 

happen—I know it sounds small and symbolic, but it is really, really important. 

Mr. COHEN. Thank you for what you’re doing to preserve his 

memory. And I know you’ve done much work, and that’s why you 

went back to Russia. And I’m a co-sponsor of that bill in the House. 

When I saw it, I had to take a second look. I thought that is a pretty effective way of continuing his memory. 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Thank you very much for that. 

Mr. COHEN. It’s a remembrance, which is so important. Yesterday was Holocaust Memorial Day in the United States. And it’s important that we never forget atrocities and we never forget the people who stand up for freedom. Your friend, Boris Nemtsov, was one. 
17 

Now, I’ve read somewhere the idea that these folks who killed 

him acted on a directive from Chechnya as a gift to Putin, never 

saying that Putin might have called his buddy and said help me. 

What is your speculation as far as the level of involvement? Does 

it just go to Chechnya and Kadyrov, or does it go back to Putin? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Well, first of all, political responsibility for this 

assassination lies squarely with Vladimir Putin and his regime. 

When the leader of the opposition, of the national opposition, is assassinated, especially in such a place, in front of the Kremlin, it is 

the government that bears responsibility. It is the government that 

bears responsibility for the campaign of hate and attacks and slander against opponents of Mr. Putin in general, but specifically 

against Boris Nemtsov. 

For years he was vilified on Russian state TV. My colleagues 

mentioned the role, the nefarious role, that state-controlled broadcasting in Russia today plays in this regime and its propaganda. 

It is absolutely vicious. They’ve described him as an American 

agent, as a traitor, as part of a fifth column. They said he would 

have welcomed Nazi troops if he was alive in 1941 in Moscow. I’m 

not making this up. These are all direct quotes that were reported 

day after day after day for years. 

So this atmosphere of hatred and intimidation didn’t just come 

out of nowhere. The atmosphere that made it possible to assassinate the leader of the opposition in front of the Kremlin was created by those propaganda outlets that are directly controlled by 

Mr. Putin and his regime. 

And, of course, the impunity and the lack of any kind of real investigation when it concerns the organizers and masterminds of 

the assassination are also a direct responsibility of the current regime, because it’s they who are doing it. 

So, of course, I don’t have any specific information as to how it 

was done. I very much hope—in fact, I am certain—that one day 

we will know the truth and that one day those people who did this 

to him will face justice, according to the law in our own country. 

Until that day comes, we need to make sure people remember and 

we need to make sure people pay attention. 

Mr. COHEN. There does seem to be a trend in Russia. There was 

the former parliamentary member who was assassinated on the 

23rd of March? I guess that’s what Putin wants to send, a signal 

to those who oppose him. He is unbelievable. 

Tell me something about the oil company they kind of took from 

the multibillionaire oligarch who I think was incarcerated. Is he 

dead now? The gentleman that created that oil empire, gas empire 

that was taken over by—— 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Right. I think you’re referring Mikhail 

Khodorkovsky—— 

Mr. COHEN. Yes. 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. ——who was the CEO of Yukos, which was 

Russia’s largest oil company; he was also the richest man in Russia 

when he was arrested in 2003 in October for daring to behave independently of the Kremlin. He supported opposition parties. He supported civil society projects. He openly exposed government corruption in a televised meeting directly with Putin sitting across from 

him like I’m now sitting across from you. 
18 

He spent more than 10 years in prison. He was pardoned and released at the end of 2013 as part of this mini thaw that came before the Sochi Olympics. And he was not just released, he was basically kicked out of the country because they only removed the police and prison escort from him when he was put on a plane belonging to a former foreign minister of Germany, the plane that took 

him to Germany. 

He’s now based in the United Kingdom and he’s actually the 

founder of the Open Russia movement of which I have the honor 

of being the vice chairman. So he’s now back to the work of supporting civil society, supporting pro-democracy activists in Russia 

with a main focus on helping and empowering and training the 

young generation of democratic activists across Russia. Those are 

the very people that we’re seeing now rise up in the tens of thousands across the country to protest against authoritarianism and 

corruption. So after spending more than 10 years in jail, he’s now 

very much free, thankfully, and very much involved in what’s happening in Russia. 

Mr. COHEN. Well, I’ve read about him. I am happy to know he’s 

alive. I didn’t know, you know, where he was now. The company, 

which they basically just stole from him, is apparently the company 

that apparently Putin might have an interest in now. And much 

of their future earnings would be based on their relationship with 

ExxonMobil and drilling in the Arctic. Is that accurate? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. The company that—well, let me put it in the 

most diplomatic way I can. The company that ended up having 

most of the assets that were stolen from Mr. Khodorkovsky and 

Yukos is a company called Rosneft, which is a majority state-owned 

oil company which is headed by Mr. Putin’s longtime and very 

close, personal friend, a man by the name of Igor Sechin, also from 

the KGB, as most of them are. And yes, Rosneft does have a very 

active international life, as it were, and international partnerships. 

And yes, it does have several partnerships with Western oil and 

gas companies. 

There are also many lawsuits, international lawsuits, including 

at the Arbitration Court in The Hague, filed by former Yukos 

shareholders. I have to say, Mr. Khodorkovsky is not one of them 

because he sold all of his shares while he was still in prison, so he’s 

not involved in any of these legal processes. But other former 

Yukos shareholders are actively pursuing legal avenues obviously 

outside of Russia on the international stage because, as you well 

understand, it’s impossible to do it in the current judicial system 

in Russia against Rosneft and against the people who basically 

stole and plundered this company. So you’re exactly right in that. 

Mr. COHEN. Putin has gotten himself pretty involved with the 

church and that’s politically wise for him, I guess. And the church 

has gone along with it. And I think that may be one of the reasons 

why Pussy Riot was arrested and treated like they were because 

it was a church-Kremlin relationship, and so it made for a perfect 

opportunity to punish somebody. That continues, I guess. And how 

are other religions? How are Jews treated in Russia this day? Is 

there freedom of religion for Christians and other minority religions? 
19 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Well, of course, the situation with freedom of 

religion is definitely much better than it was in Soviet times. I 

think that’s one area where things haven’t deteriorated as badly as 

they have in other areas. Although, I must say there are also cases 

that go against the principle of freedom of religion. I mean, just recently the Russian supreme court banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses, 

for instance, as an extremist group. 

Mr. COHEN. Right. I saw it was illegal to be a Jehovah’s Witness, 

isn’t it? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. They said these are extremist views, so they 

have been banned for that reason. 

As far as all the major religions go, the so-called major traditional religions, which is Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and 

Islam, those are the four traditional religions recognized in Russia, 

there is freedom of religion for worship, needless to say. And I 

think it would be fair to say, as you mentioned, that there is this 

close relationship between the people who are currently in power 

and the leaders or the hierarchy I should say of basically all of 

those major organized religions. I mean, Mr. Putin regularly has 

meetings obviously with Russian Orthodox church leadership, but 

also with the leaders of the Jewish religion in Russia, with Islam 

and Buddhism. 

But I wouldn’t equate the leadership and the hierarchy with believers and even with the clergy. There are different views among 

the clergy; for instance, I know very well this Russian Orthodox 

priest whose name is Father Georgy Edelstein. He’s a member of 

the Moscow Helsinki Group, one of the oldest human rights organizations in Russia; he’s also a serving Russian Orthodox priest, and 

there are others who are not afraid to state their opinions which 

may be, in many cases, different from what the government wants 

them to believe and say. 

So, in general, I think you’re right to say that there is this close 

relationship between the current regime and the hierarchy of religious organizations. But generally, I think, on the level of people, 

of citizens, freedom of religion, that’s an area where things are a 

little better than in other areas, such as freedom of the media certainly, or freedom of political opposition. 

Mr. COHEN. Thank you very much. I yield back. 

Mr. WICKER. The congressman has no time to yield back. [Laughter.] But we’ve had a good discussion. 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Forgive me, that was probably me rather than 

him. 

Mr. WICKER. No, it was the chair. 

Ms. Jackson Lee. 

HON. SHIRLEY JACKSON LEE, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION 

ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much. 

And I welcome all the witnesses here. I am a new member of the 

Commission and delighted to be here. I am also the ranking member of the House Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, 

Homeland Security and Investigations. Their hearing is going on as 

we speak, and so I will ask my questions and beg your pardon for 

my leaving the hearing early. 
20 

But I do want to mention, as my colleagues have done, yesterday 

was the Holocaust memorial and want to again take note of that 

heinous and horrific and violent and singular act of barbarism. 

I do want to take note of the fact of where we are as it relates 

to Russia, because when the Soviet Union was broken up, I know 

there was a great deal of hope and aspirations and inspiration because we had believed we could not change Russians’ political infrastructure; it’s a communist country. But when I say ‘‘could not 

change,’’ we had hoped that the various voices would be allowed to 

speak freely and the people’s will could then be directed according 

to those voices of the Russian people. 

So I do want to say to you, Mr. Kara-Murza, you are a living miracle and testament to the fortitude of the Russian people, who have 

a great history and whom many of us admire. And we want that 

kind of, how should I say, seeding of democracy to be able to thrive. 

You have survived. You have been under threat of death; and 

therefore, it certainly is an example of not what we want to have 

happen, but that we must now fight even harder. 

So I want to ask unanimous consent that my statement be submitted into the record—— 

Mr. WICKER. Without objection. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. ——and just make these points. Thank you. 

Russia has not had a free and fair election since March 2000. It 

shocks the American conscious to grapple with the somber realities 

that opposition activists like yourself, Mr. Kara-Murza, are routinely assaulted or even murdered, giving rise to a new term, the 

‘‘sudden Kremlin death syndrome,’’ which I’m going to pursue in 

questions. 

Political prisoner numbers now match those of the late Soviet 

era, which is shocking. And on March 26th, tens of thousands of 

people in cities across 11 time zones protested widespread government corruption with more than a thousand arrested. 

So this question will go to all three witnesses. And we’ll start 

with Mr. Kara-Murza, but all of you will answer. First, give me 

your sense of the ‘‘sudden Kremlin death syndrome.’’ There may be 

others that are not as well-known that have mysteriously lost their 

lives because they dared to oppose the regime—that’s under the 

umbrella of human rights, that you have a right to express your 

opposition and to live. 

The other question would be, your comments on this issue of 

prisoners, political prisoners without counsel, without being able to 

see family members. And everyone knows that when America begins to raise the question, someone will point out the high number 

of people we have incarcerated. I happen to be heavily engaged in 

reforming our criminal justice system. But I think we can match 

point for point in a more superior stance of our constitutional privileges and processes that we see every day. 

And so I really want to get into the weeds of how this is intertwined, the ‘‘sudden Kremlin death syndrome’’ and the issue of 

human rights and the incarceration of anyone that may offer themselves as an opponent or just simply want to express their rights 

for expression that oppose, in particular, Mr. Putin and his administration. And I certainly want to make sure that I said it right, 

the ‘‘sudden Kremlin death syndrome.’’ 
21 

Mr. Kara-Murza? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Thank you very much for the questions, Congresswoman. As far as the deaths go, there are about 30 people, 

who were prominent either in the political opposition or who were 

independent journalists and who were engaged in anticorruption 

campaigns and who were whistleblowers, who have lost their lives 

in one way or another since Vladimir Putin came to power 17 years 

ago. These were sometimes suspicious suicides or plane crashes or 

strange and very rare diseases. But in many cases, it was just 

plain and open assassination, like what happened to the leader of 

the Russian opposition, Boris Nemtsov, when they put five bullets 

in his back when he was walking home over the bridge in front of 

the Kremlin. 

And there certainly seems to be a very high mortality rate 

among the people who oppose Vladimir Putin, a mortality rate that 

defies any kind of normal statistical model. And the latest case of 

this was just a couple of days ago when a journalist in St. Petersburg, Nikolai Andrushchenko, who also engaged in anticorruption 

investigations, died after being beaten up by quote-unquote, ‘‘unknown assailants.’’ So, you know, I think there is no more horrible 

human rights violation than a violation of the right to life. And 

that right has been violated repeatedly since Mr. Putin came to 

power. And not only has it been violated, but it has been violated 

with impunity because not in a single case of those political assassinations were their organizers and masterminds brought to justice. 

In some of the cases the lower-level perpetrators were convicted, 

like in the case of Anna Politkovskaya, who was a journalist for 

Novaya Gazeta, who was assassinated almost 11 years ago. There 

are alleged perpetrators who are on trial now in the case of the assassination of Boris Nemtsov, but never have the authorities pursued the higher-ups, those who organized those killings and those 

who masterminded them, not in a single case. So this impunity, 

needless to say, creates the conditions for these things to continue. 

And it’s very important to pay attention to it and not to let them 

forget and hush up and sweep under the carpet. 

And as far as the political prisoners go, the Memorial Human 

Rights Centre, which is the most respected human rights organization in Russia today, which monitors the situation with political 

prisoners, it has a very high standard of defining what political 

prisoners are. So their estimate, it’s actually based on the Council 

of Europe definition, and so it’s pretty conservative. And even by 

that conservative estimate, there are 115 people in Russian prisons 

today who are imprisoned on politically motivated charges. 

And you can see some of those people on the posters here. And 

these are opposition activists, these are journalists, these are people who took part in peaceful antigovernment demonstrations. 

These are people connected with the Yukos case that we mentioned, and many, many, many others. And it is very, very important to raise their cases, to talk about them, including in international fora, because we don’t have the law protecting us in Russia. We don’t have the rule of law under the current regime in Russia. The only thing that can serve as any kind of protection in 

these cases is international attention, international public opinion. 
22 

And these people are not just imprisoned. They’re also very often 

beaten, tortured. Ildar Dadin, who was an opposition activist, was 

thankfully released recently after a massive campaign, including 

an international campaign for his release. He was the first person 

in Russia to be imprisoned under a new law that was a specially 

passed law to target people who stage one-man pickets, one-man 

opposition pickets. So there’s one person standing with a poster. 

And he was given a two-year prison sentence for that. He was released earlier. But while he was imprisoned, he was tortured and 

he had the courage to talk about it and to pass this information 

to the outside, so this became known. And the campaign for his release really took off and he was released, so this really does work 

and it’s important to talk about this. 

And Ivan Nepomnyashchik, who is one of the people on this poster, who was imprisoned as part of the Bolotnaya case. This was a 

big anti-Putin opposition rally in Moscow in May of 2012. And 

there are people still in prison today for taking part in that rally, 

including him. He’s only 27 years old. He was 22 at the time of the 

rally. And just a few days ago, he was severely beaten as well in 

the penal colony where he is held in the Yaroslavl region, not too 

far from Moscow. And as we know, as we’ve heard, they’re now not 

even allowing his defenders, his lawyers to go and see him. So it 

is very, very important to continue to keep these issues and these 

cases and these specific individuals in the eye of public attention. 

And it’s very important to raise those cases as well during bilateral 

talks. 

My colleagues mentioned the recent visit of the new U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow. I think it was regrettable 

that he did not find time to meet with civil society representatives 

or to talk about human rights. I think it’s very important to do so. 

And there’s been a long bipartisan tradition of U.S. Government 

and U.S. administrations and U.S. secretaries of state to meet with 

civil society representatives and to talk about human rights and to 

raise specific issues of political prisoners, before in the Soviet 

Union and now in Russia. And Carter did it, Reagan did it, Bush 

did it; it’s important to continue to do this. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Thank you. 

The other witnesses, if you can add a point or two, thank you. 

Ms. DENBER. That was so comprehensive. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. If you can just focus on the human rights, political prisoners—— 

Ms. DENBER. I just want to give a little bit of detail about what 

it is that some of these other people are actually accused of. 

Mr. WICKER. Let’s do that. 

And thank you, Ms. Jackson Lee, for giving us that opening. 

We’ve had these portraits up here the entire hearing. So, in response to Ms. Jackson Lee’s question, I think that would be a nice 

segue for our witnesses. 

Ms. DENBER. So let’s look at Darya Poliudova. She’s serving a 

two-year prison sentence. What do you think someone would have 

to do to merit a two-year prison sentence? What Darya Poliudova 

did was, she has a page on VKontakte, which is kind of the Russian 

version of Facebook, and she had three posts that came under scrutiny. One was a comment that she made, a satirical comment on 
23 

what was happening in Ukraine. I won’t get into the details. And 

she also posted a photograph of herself holding a poster that said, 

‘‘No war in Ukraine, but revolution in Russia,’’ and another poster 

that said ‘‘We need a Maidan’’—which is a reference to the revolt, 

the public revolt that ousted Ukraine’s former president back in 

2014—‘‘We need Maidan in Russia.’’ 

And those posts were visible to a very small group, you know, 

her 35 followers. She had 35 followers. And these were the posts 

that came under scrutiny. These are the posts that ended up landing her in prison. And she got a two-year prison term. It’s absurd. 

You already talked about Dmitry Buchenkov. Dmitry Buchenkov 

is accused of, I think, assaulting a police officer during the 2012 

public protests that were just on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration when he returned to the presidency. This is a case that 

the government has milked as much as it possibly can. It’s called 

the Bolotnaya case because the protests happened on a place called 

Bolotnaya Square. It started out peacefully, police interfered and 

there were some scuffles between a very small number of the protesters and police. And as a result, more than a dozen people 

served prison terms, some of them quite long prison terms. And 

even though this happened in 2012, the government continues to 

pursue people who they accuse of being involved in violence against 

police during the protests. And Dmitry Buchenkov is one of them. 

He was arrested last year. And the thing is that he claims he 

wasn’t even there. He has alibis testifying to the fact that he 

wasn’t in Moscow at the time. If you look at his photographs and 

the photographs of the person the police are pursuing, because he 

allegedly beat a cop, you can see that these are not the same; it’s 

not the same person. 

But nonetheless, he’s spent actually more than a year in pre-trial 

custody and only a month ago and only after a really dedicated battle by Memorial and others did they finally release him to house 

arrest. So that’s Dmitry Buchenkov. 

Oleg Sentsov, who was already mentioned, and maybe I’ll only 

mention him briefly now because there is going to be a briefing devoted to his case tomorrow—I really encourage people to attend. 

Oleg Sentsov last night was honored by the PEN America Center 

at their annual gala. Oleg Sentsov is a filmmaker. He’s actually a 

Ukrainian citizen, who lived in Crimea until he was arrested. And 

he was arrested together with a colleague, Mr. Kolchenko. The 

Russian Government has accused him of terrorism. The thing is 

that at the time when the little green men were creating the annexation of Crimea and shortly thereafter there were a couple of 

arson attempts on a couple of buildings in Crimea, and one of them 

was the building where Russia’s main political party, Yedinaya 

Rossiya, United Russia, had its headquarters. There was an arson 

attempt. No one was hurt. 

Kolchenko is accused of carrying out these arson attempts. And 

because he’s friends with Sentsov and because Sentsov spoke out 

a lot against the occupation of Crimea and actually, I think, tried 

to help Ukrainian soldiers at a time when things were very tense 

during the annexation, during the actual seizure of Crimea, the 

government really went after Sentsov. And they’ve sentenced him 

to 20 years in prison on charges of terrorism, for being in league 
24 

together with Kolchenko in these arson attempts. There’s no evidence against Sentsov whatsoever. 

And you just wonder, what it is that the Russian Government 

might be waiting for? What do they expect? Do they really expect 

to hold him for 20 years? Are they going to release him if there is 

enough pressure, like they released Nadiya Savchenko last year, 

another Ukrainian citizen who was a member of the Ukrainian 

armed forces and was arrested on wrongful charges? 

I don’t want to go through every single one of these people, but 

I did want to highlight those cases. There are other cases like them 

in each one of the categories that we mentioned. And I think that 

the key point is why it is that there can be ‘‘sudden Kremlin death 

syndrome,’’ why it is that there can be people who are prosecuted 

because of political motives. How can that happen? It can happen 

because there’s impunity and it can happen because the courts are 

not independent. It can happen because the government manipulates justice. And precisely because these cases are politically motivated, it means that there needs to be political pressure in order 

to end the injustice. 

Mr. WICKER. Well, thank you. 

Who mentioned public diplomacy? Who mentioned RFE and RL? 

Let me just ask both you, Ms. Denber, and you, Dr. Calingaert, to 

comment about the disparity in terms of the effectiveness and quality of propaganda coming from the Putin side of the equation and 

I guess what we would like to call the public diplomacy or information coming from our side. 

Is it a fair fight at all? And what should the United States be 

doing in that regard? Who would like to go first? 

Dr. Calingaert. 

Dr. CALINGAERT. Yes. You know, the scale of investment in Russian propaganda is really impressive. And also, the sophistication 

of it. And I will tell you, when I was teaching at Georgetown, I’d 

have my class look at clips from RT and basically have to answer 

the question, what is wrong with this picture? And think of it, even 

graduate students at one of the top universities would really have 

to think hard about how their view of a certain issue is being manipulated and sometimes would even miss key details. I mean, it 

really is that sophisticated. 

I think, in some ways, by its nature it’s an uneven fight. I mean, 

what we are trying to encourage is fact-based news, a somber view 

of what’s happening in the world, balance—and conspiracy theories 

are just more entertaining. I mean, it often comes down to that. 

But I think at the very least, we need to try to—I’m not sure if we 

could ever match the scale of investment that we give to RFE or 

RL and VOA and others compared to RT and Sputnik. But I think 

we can do and need to do a lot better in investing more and just 

trying to operate on the same scale. 

I also think that the U.S. foreign broadcasting is only part of the 

answer. There is some very high-quality Russian media, like 

Meduza, based outside of the country. And I think they have quite 

extensive reach. And it’s important that their independence be 

maintained and their credibility. But if there are ways that we can 

encourage more of that, I think there is an appetite for real investigation, investigative reporting, coverage of anticorruption issues, 
25 

news that Russian citizens can use that speaks to the problems in 

their daily lives, that that will, over time, reduce the appeal of the 

sensationalism, the conspiracy theories and the mind-bending that 

Russian propaganda is trying to carry out. 

Mr. WICKER. Ms. Denber. 

Ms. DENBER. I would agree with everything Dr. Calingaert just 

said. I would also say that I think that what the Kremlin broadcast 

media tries to do and particularly the Kremlin foreign broadcasting, like RT and Sputnik, what they’re trying to do is undermine the very notion that there can be or should be objectivity in 

media reporting. So their assumption—and some of their leaders 

have actually said this—is that, oh, come on, there really is no objectivity, you know, and look at these mistakes that all of these 

outlets make, and so they’re fake news. 

So, of course, every reporter might come to a story with a bias, 

but there’s a great difference between the things that you do to 

overcome that bias on the one hand, and on the other hand the 

complete perversion of objectivity in media reporting that we see 

in some of the Kremlin broadcast institutions. 

So they are trying to exhaust the reader and the viewer, to sort 

of shower you with so many—— 

Mr. WICKER. Bombard the viewer. 

Ms. DENBER. Exactly, to bombard the reader, to dull your senses, 

to sort of put you into a haze where you say, yeah, yeah, that’s all, 

it’s just too hard to figure out so I’m not even going to bother to 

try, and to make the viewer sort of disengage from even the search 

or the hunger for the truth. 

I think it’s doesn’t work. I think that it fails. I think that after 

a while people distrust those outlets just as much as they might 

have distrusted at some point other outlets. And I think the answer is to continue supporting outlets like Radio Liberty and Voice 

of America, but the answer is also to ensure that they maintain a 

high level of quality journalism. There needs to be a fair fight, but 

I think that outlets like Radio Liberty need to keep to reporting 

facts, need to keep to looking at all sides of the story. They should 

not feel that they can sink to the level of what has become fake 

news. 

Mr. WICKER. But, Mr. Kara-Murza, as a resident of Russia, it’s 

actually the mainstream media, the everyday programming, is it 

not, that contains the exact message that the Putin regime wishes 

to be disseminated? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Absolutely, Mr. Chairman. And this has been 

going on for years. And this has been going on aggressively. In fact, 

the first thing—the first thing—Mr. Putin did when he came to 

power back in the early 2000s was to silence the voices of independent television. It was in his first three years in power he shut 

down or took over three nationwide independent television networks. And now, all the state media in Russia are propaganda outlets for the government and nothing else, who will tell you that everything the authorities do is perfect and who will tell you that 

those who oppose Mr. Putin are traitors, enemies and foreign 

agents. 

Mr. WICKER. And the regular programming, the regular entertainment comes right along with that very broadcast. 
26 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Of course, it’s intermixed, so you’d watch movies, you know, you’d watch a TV series, many of which are done 

with very high quality and there’s certainly no shortage of investments going into state media, domestic state media. And then, of 

course, that would be intermixed with those, quote-unquote, ‘‘news 

messages’’ and so-called discussion programs or you would never 

really get any differing points of view. You would just get 

bombarded, to use the term that you used, with the propaganda 

messages. 

And propaganda, sometimes people dismiss it as just something 

of second-tier importance. But propaganda can be very powerful. 

Propaganda can kill, as we discussed recently. 

Mr. WICKER. It works. 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Absolutely. And if I could just say a couple of 

words on the foreign broadcasting aspect, I think the only effective 

way to counter the lies and the propaganda is with objective information. And for now, I don’t think there’s a level playing field in 

terms of this foreign broadcasting. I’m quoting these figures from 

memory, but I think if I’m correct, the White House budget request 

for both RFE, RL and Voice of America services in the Russian language for the current fiscal year is 15 million U.S. dollars. The annual budget of RT is 300 million U.S. dollars, so it’s a factor of 20. 

So I think it’s very important to maintain something at least close 

to a level playing field here. 

Mr. WICKER. Well, let me then get back to the idea of an expanded Magnitsky list. Do any of you have specific suggestions, either in open testimony today or for the record, about names that 

should be added? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Can I start? There are now 44 people sanctioned on the U.S. Magnitsky list. And I have to say that in the 

early years since the law was passed, the administration was very 

timid in implementing it in terms of putting the actual names on 

the list. And the highest-profile people were put on this list just 

this year, in January of this year, in the last two weeks of the 

former administration when they put in, for example, Andrei 

Lugovoi, who is a member of the Russian parliament, who was 

found by a British public inquiry to have been responsible for the 

murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. 

And as we discussed earlier in this hearing, they put General Alexander Bastrykin, who is a top law enforcement officer in the 

Putin regime, the guy who’s responsible for all these politically motivated prosecutions, who is responsible for the Yukos case, who 

once personally took a leading independent journalist to a forest 

near Moscow and said, ‘‘if you continue with your investigations 

I’m going to kill you, I’m going to bury you here and, by the way, 

I’m going to be in charge of the investigation, ha, ha.’’ So that person is finally on the Magnitsky list and he’s the most high-profile 

Putin official to be there. 

But, of course, there are many, many more who deserve to be put 

on that list. Of course, there is a complex and fundamental process 

that accompanies the way these people are screened before being 

put on a list. But if you’re asking for specific suggestions, well, certainly Ramzan Kadyrov was mentioned several times during this 

hearing. In the various aspects of human rights abuses that he’s 
27 

been involved in, he certainly belongs—I mean, we’ve heard, we’ve 

seen reports in the U.S. media, all the leaks, all the sources saying 

that he is on the classified section. Of course, there is no way we 

could know that, whether that’s true or not. Even if he is, I think 

that one of the main purposes of the law is public naming and 

shaming of these human rights abusers. 

Mr. WICKER. This is Mr. Putin’s man in Chechnya. 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. He’s Vladimir Putin’s man in Chechnya and 

he’s responsible for the countless human rights abuses there. Even 

by the standards of the Putin regime, Chechnya is a particular 

black hole when it comes to human rights. They have torture, they 

have killings, they have disappearances. Opponents and enemies of 

Mr. Kadyrov have ended up dead not just in Chechnya, but in Moscow and Dubai and in Vienna, Austria. So that guy certainly does 

merit belonging to the Magnitsky list. 

There are many others. Yury Chaika is another person that 

comes to mind, the current prosecutor general, who is also responsible for countless politically motivated prosecutions. 

Mr. WICKER. It is a fact that our ambassador to the United Nations has specifically spoken out against these violations in 

Chechnya and the attacks. Is that correct, Mr. Kara-Murza? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. Yes, you are right. 

Mr. WICKER. And also, I would note that Senators Rubio and 

Cardin have been particularly outspoken in this regard. 

There’s going to be a vote soon on the Senate floor. 

Mr. Cohen, do you have other questions? 

Mr. COHEN. Just one, thank you. 

I was in Russia and we visited a couple of times, but one time 

we had Steven Seagal join our CODEL. And he seemed to have a 

fascination with the Chechen muscle man. He also, I think, wanted 

to sell some Kalashnikov rifles over here. What is his status and 

how close is he to Putin and to Ramzan? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. How close is Ramzan to Putin? 

Mr. COHEN. No, to Steven Seagal. And is he still—does he have 

dual citizenship now? 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. No, Ge ́rard Depardieu does, the French actor, 

he is a dual citizen. He was given a Russian passport. 

Mr. COHEN. Yeah, I knew he did, but Seagal, see, he was telling 

us that he had some type of Mongolian heritage and he claimed to 

be—— 

Mr. KARA-MURZA. I’m afraid I have to excuse myself, I’m not a 

very big expert on Steven Seagal, but we certainly have seen him 

paraded on Russian state media sitting with Mr. Putin, at a stadium during a sports event. He certainly does come to Russia a lot 

and goes to meet with all these officials. But frankly, I hope I’m 

not offending anyone, I don’t think he’s taken too seriously by most 

people in Russia. 

Mr. COHEN. Thank you. That’s good news. [Laughter.] 

Mr. WICKER. Well, we could go on and on. Let me say this about 

Boris Nemtsov. I hope the House and Senate can get this legislation through to name an important open area for Mr. Nemtsov here 

in the United States. I was a member of a delegation led by Representative Curt Weldon back in 1998. Steny Hoyer, the current 

minority leader of the House of Representatives, was the ranking 
28 

Democrat on this relatively large, bipartisan delegation to Moscow. 

And we had the opportunity to meet with this young, energetic, 

bright deputy prime minister serving under Prime Minister 

Chernomyrdin and President Yeltsin. And I’ll tell you, he was no 

apologist for the West. He was giving us the Russian point of view 

in every respect, up to and including urging the United States not 

to support NATO expansion. He felt that it would be bad for the 

status quo, bad for his own country and recommended it as being 

bad for the West. And I disagreed with him and I think I’d probably still disagree with him. 

But the point is, this was a loyal Russian official, a bright, 

young, up-and-comer that had the opportunity to be deputy prime 

minister for a time. And he loved his country and he wanted his 

country to be free and open and the citizens there to be free. That 

was the difference. And when it became obvious in the Duma that 

President Putin intended to move basically toward one-party 

authoritarianism, Boris Nemtsov called it what he saw it, a coming 

dictatorship. And that was the beginning of Boris Nemtsov’s fall 

out of favor. 

And I just have to say that it is the very least we could do to 

honor this brave individual who spoke out and led those oppressed 

dissidents in Russia. And so I hope we can double our efforts, Representative Cohen, to get this legislation passed, to have the Boris 

Nemtsov Plaza. 

I would also, before we adjourn, ask unanimous consent that we 

include in the record of this hearing the photographs and one-paragraph descriptions of the individuals [Russian prisoners] who are 

on display here. And without objection, that is so ordered. 

And at this point, if there’s nothing else, this hearing will stand 

adjourned with the thanks of the chair and in honor of Orest here. 

[Applause.] 

[Whereupon, at 11:12 a.m., the hearing ended.] 
(29) 

A P P E N D I C E S 
30 

PREPARED STATEMENTS

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER F. WICKER, CHAIRMAN, COMMISSION ON

SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE

The Commission will come to order, and good morning to everybody. 

The 115th Congress has already, in its very first months, devoted considerable attention to threats posed by Russia—to the states of the former USSR, to all of Europe, and even to the United States through Russia’s interference in our very own 

elections, a matter that remains under investigation by multiple U.S. authorities. 

What we have not yet done, and this goes well back into the 114th Congress, is 

take a long hard look at the continuing violations of democratic norms and human 

rights within Russia itself, so I am happy that my first hearing as Chairman of the 

U.S. Helsinki Commission can focus on this very important and timely topic. 

I am especially glad that we have such an expert panel of witnesses to testify 

today on the impact these abuses have, not only on the people of the Russian Federation, but on the larger international community by effectively silencing the voices 

of the opposition within Russia and giving the Putin regime a free hand to act with 

impunity abroad. 

We will begin with somebody who is no stranger to me, to the Helsinki Commission, nor to the halls of Congress thanks to his tireless work promoting democracy 

in Russia. Despite the Putin regime’s efforts to silence him through two poisonings, 

Mr. Vladimir Kara-Murza is still with us today, and I can’t think of anybody in a 

better position to tell us about the intense—and all too often lethal—pressure being 

applied to brave Russians like him who engage in opposition politics. Vladimir, 

thank you for joining us and for your courage and that of your family in facing the 

hardships that unfortunately befall critics of the Putin regime. 

We are also very fortunate to have representatives of two of the top independent 

organizations promoting human rights and freedom of expression across the globe— 

Human Rights Watch and Freedom House. Rachel Denber will be sharing with us 

highlights of her years of work following human rights issues in Russia for Human 

Rights Watch, including the shocking stories of murder and repression in Chechnya 

that have recently come to light. Human Rights Watch has been the only international organization actively following that case. 

Daniel Calingaert is the Executive Vice President of Freedom House, an organization that needs no introduction here. Freedom House’s annual publications, Freedom 

in the World, Freedom of the Press and Freedom of the Net, have been invaluable 

in helping Congress and proponents of the freedom of expression and democracy all 

over the world track both progress and backsliding on these fundamental freedoms 

around the globe. In the case of Russia, the trends have not been positive, and we 

look forward to hearing much more about that. 

Let me offer a word about the portraits of people you may have noticed on your 

way in, and which you will also see here at the front of the room. These represent 

several well-known political prisoners currently behind bars in Russia; we will hear 

about many of them during this morning’s hearing. Let me stress that the people 

portrayed here represent only a fraction of the dozens of political prisoners held in 

Russia—indeed, some groups following this issue, like the NGO ‘‘Memorial,’’ estimate the number is in the hundreds. We wanted to be able to help our audience 

see at least a few of the faces behind some of the names you will hear today and, 

we will of course have much more information on political prisoners in the material 

that will be submitted for the written record. 

We hope to accomplish two things at today’s hearing. First of all, we want to draw 

much-needed attention to the ongoing serious abuses of human rights in Russia, to 

remind all members of Congress and the American public that the situation in Russia is grave and could continue to deteriorate. Secondly, with our witnesses’ assistance, we would like to evaluate how our current approach to human rights abuses 

in Russia is working, and to consider what we can do to get things back on a positive trajectory in Russia. Ultimately, a Russia that fully respects all of its citizen’s 

human rights, that allows for full freedom of expression and religion and for free 

and fair elections will be a place where all Russians can prosper. Those improvements would also make Russia a much better neighbor, and would go a long way 

towards promoting peace and security in the entire Eurasian region. 

We have a lot to discuss, so I’d like to now yield to Senator Cardin. 
31 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN CARDIN, RANKING MEMBER, COMMISSION

ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE

Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this important hearing on Russia and particularly the opportunity to focus on violations of fundamental freedoms and the repression of democracy, the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, and free and 

fair elections. These abuses are directly related to the acts of aggression that have 

been the focus of so much congressional inquiry this year already. 

A few weeks ago, we saw Russian citizens demonstrate across the length and 

breadth of the Russian Federation in an effort to end the systemic corruption that 

corrodes the everyday lives of people from all walks of life. Remarkably, an estimated 30,000 truckers in 60 cities are continuing to protest a road tax collected by 

a private firm with ties to President Putin. In a country where peaceful protests 

in Bolotnaya Square were so severely punished a few years ago, these are striking 

manifestations against corruption and for the rule of law, independent institutions 

of accountability, and human dignity. 

These Russians ask no less of Russia than what Russia itself committed to in the 

Helsinki Final Act. In fact, it was in Moscow that the OSCE participating States 

explicitly acknowledged that ‘‘issues relating to human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law are of international concern, as respect for 

these rights and freedoms constitutes one of the foundations of the international 

order. They categorically and irrevocably declare that the commitments undertaken 

in the field of the human dimension of the [OSCE] are matters of direct and legitimate concern to all participating States and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the State concerned.’’ 

I am particularly heartened that Vladimir Kara-Murza can be with us here today. 

When Mr. Kara-Murza testified before Congress in June 2015, he said, 

Our friends in the West often ask how they can be helpful to the cause of 

human rights and democracy in Russia and the answer to this is very simple. Please stay true to your values. We are not asking for your support. 

It is our task to fight for democracy and rule of law in our country. 

The only thing we ask from Western leaders is that they stop supporting Mr. 

Putin by treating him as a respectable and worthy partner and by allowing Mr. 

Putin’s cronies to use Western countries as havens for their looted wealth. 

Vladimir, your courage and commitment is an inspiration and we are grateful 

that you are here to speak for others who have fallen in the struggle to speak 

truth to power. 

Tragically, those numbers continue to increase. Just a few days ago, a St. Petersburg journalist succumbed to his injuries after being beaten into a coma on 

March 9. His case is a reminder that many attacks have resulted in not only the 

loss of life, but in some cases have left people maimed or disabled for life. 

I also hope our witnesses will speak to the alarming reports we have received of 

large-scale and brutal attacks, some resulting in murder, targeting gay men in 

Chechnya. These attacks seem to reflect a horrific intersection of the government’s 

hostility against LGBT people and the symbiotic relationship between President 

Putin and Chechnya’s most notorious thug, Ramzan Kadyrov. I am also concerned 

for the safety of the two journalists, Elena Milashina and Irina Gordienko, who 

broke the story of this wave of violence and have been threatened for their courageous reporting. 

Mr. Chairman, I also welcome the opportunity to focus on the political prisoners 

and others detained in violation of Principal VII of the Helsinki Final Act—the right 

of people to know and act upon their human rights. The cases of these ‘‘P-VII Detainees’’ have been well documented by Memorial, the Russian civil society organization established to document the crimes of Soviet repression. If I may, Mr. Chairman, I would like to include in the record Memorial’s list of political prisoners 

which was submitted at the OSCE’s Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in 

Warsaw in September. I regret that Secretary Tillerson did not meet with independent civil society groups like Memorial when he visited Moscow, forgoing an opportunity to communicate U.S. support for an open and democratic Russia. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all of our witnesses for being here 

today. 
32 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION

ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE

Good morning Chairmen Wicker and Smith, and Ranking Members Cardin and 

Hastings and thank you for holding this hearing before the Helsinki Commission 

to discuss the grim state of human rights abuses and democracy in the Russian Federation. 

Russia’s overt external aggression against countries such as Ukraine, its support 

for the Assad regime in Syria, and its efforts to disrupt western democracies are 

made possible by the internal repression of its own people. 

For example, Russia has not had a free and fair election since March 2000. 

It shocks the American conscience to grapple with the somber realities that opposition activists like witness Vladimir Kara-Murza are routinely assaulted or even 

murdered, giving rise to a new term: ‘‘Sudden Kremlin Death Syndrome.’’ 

Political prisoner numbers now match those of the late Soviet era, and on 

March 26, tens of thousands of people in cities across 11 time zones protested widespread government corruption, with more than 1,000 arrested. 

And more nationwide protests are expected on June 12th, the national holiday of 

the Russian Federation. 

The Kremlin’s crackdown on civil society, media, and the Internet took a more 

sinister turn in 2015 as the government further intensified harassment and persecution of independent critics. 

For the fourth year in a row, parliament has adopted laws and authorities engaged in repressive practices that increasingly isolated the country. 

Against the backdrop of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and sanctions 

against Russia over Crimea, anti-Western hysteria has been at its peak since the 

end of the Cold War. 

This hearing will examine the grim state of human rights and democracy in the 

Russian Federation. 

I look forward to hearing from the following witnesses scheduled to testify here 

today: 

1) Vladimir Kara-Murza, Vice Chairman, Open Russia; 

2) Rachel Denber, Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division, 

Human Rights Watch; and 

3) Daniel Calingaert, Executive Vice President, Freedom House 
33 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. MICHAEL BURGESS, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON

SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The invasion of Crimea was the realization of Russia, particularly Vladimir 

Putin’s, dissatisfaction with the current European order and paranoia of a second 

collapse of the Russian regime. Putin wants NATO to fracture and international organizations, such as the Helsinki Commission, to weaken in order to create the necessity of a new order that is not predicated primarily on Western influence. To 

achieve these objectives, he has implemented an authoritarian regime that erodes 

democracy in Russia and regularly commits violations of non-intervention and 

human rights principles agreed to by Helsinki Commission participating states. 

Russia has been engaging in overt and covert subversive action in the media, in 

cyberspace, and across international borders in order to further Putin’s aggressive 

international agenda. He is rebuilding Russia’s national identity through military 

action and a strategy of compiling and disseminating comprising information, or 

blackmail. This activity is hurting the basic freedoms and human rights of Russian 

citizens. 

Putin’s political legitimacy is largely rooted in the performance of Russia’s economy. Increased military spending, western sanctions, and low energy prices coupled 

with corruption are hurting the Russian people, but they are also helping to fuel 

their frustration. Just recently, tens of thousands of people protested corruption 

among Russia’s elite, and the government reacted by arresting 800 people—brutally 

beating many of those. 

But this isn’t the first, or likely the last, time that challenges have been met with 

violence and human rights violations. Last year, over 250 journalists were jailed, 

with some being beaten and killed, 141 independent organizations were designated 

as foreign agents without evidence, and at least eight prominent Russians have died 

or been poisoned under suspicious circumstances, including one of our witnesses 

today. 

In addition, Russia’s example of aggressive suppression has led to the arrest, torture, and often killing of at least 100 gay men in Chechnya. 

The most blatant demonstration of Russia’s lack of respect for democracy and 

human rights is its 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Despite an official 

ceasefire, known as Minsk II, the conflict in eastern Ukraine has remained frozen 

without any prospect of resolution. This status quo serves Russian interests by limiting the possibility of further European integration, undermining rule of law, and 

preserving a point of leverage for potential negotiations with the West on other 

international issues. 

When Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was downed over separatist-held territory by 

a Russian missile, killing all passengers, Russia denied involvement and denounced 

the Dutch-led investigation as politically motivated, claiming Russia was the only 

country that provided credible information. Air operations were ceased in the 

Donbas region in September 2014, but the threat of this ongoing conflict has not 

dissipated. It has attracted foreign fighters, including Syrians, to an easily accessible and often untraceable arms market. 

In addition, two days ago an American paramedic serving on the OSCE’s Special 

Monitoring Mission in Ukraine was killed when his vehicle struck an explosive in 

separatist-held territory. This death was entirely preventable. It is indefensible to 

allow Russia to perpetuate a frozen international conflict that has killed thousands 

of people from Ukraine, Russia, and the West. 

Vladimir Putin is able to engage in international and domestic bouts of aggression 

and suppression under the guise of protecting traditional values and the Russian 

homeland, all at the expense of the prosperity and freedom of his own people. This 

must stop. 

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about their experiences and how we 

can work to promote democracy and end violations of human rights in Russia. 
34 

1 Elections in Russia. OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. http:// 

www.osce.org/odihr/elections/russia 2 ‘‘Parliament is not a place for discussion.’’ Kommersant. December 12, 2011 (In Russian) 

http://kommersant.ru/doc/1838005 3 Current list of political prisoners. Memorial Human Rights Center (in Russian) http:// 

memohrc.org/pzk-list 4 ‘‘Russian Violations of the Rule of Law; How Should the U.S. Respond?’’ U.S. Helsinki Commission Hearing. October 21, 2015. Testimony by Vladimir Kara-Murza. https://www.csce.gov/ 

sites/helsinkicommission.house.gov/files/vkm-csce-testimony-21oct2015.pdf 5 ‘‘Court refuses to call Kadyrov for questioning in Nemstov murder case.’’ RBC. December 

6, 2016 (in Russian) http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/5846a3689a7947446ca6289e ‘‘Court rejects 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA

Chairman Wicker, Co-Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Cardin, Ranking Member Hastings, Members of the Commission, thank you for holding this important 

hearing and for the opportunity to testify. 

This coming Saturday, April 29, pro-democracy activists across Russia will take 

part in a nationwide campaign organized by the Open Russia movement with a single message: ‘‘Enough.’’ They will hold rallies and send petitions calling on Vladimir 

Putin to leave the Kremlin when his current term—officially third, in reality 

fourth—expires next spring. Mr. Putin has been in power for seventeen years. There 

is now an entire generation of Russians who have no memory of any other government. 

This longevity has been the result of a deliberate suppression of the opposition, 

independent media and civil society, and continuous violations of the rights and 

freedoms guaranteed to Russian citizens by our Constitution and by our country’s 

commitments under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Chief 

among these is the right to freely elect one’s own government. After March 2000, 

not a single national election in Russia—presidential or parliamentary—was assessed by OSCE observers as free and fair. 1 Unequal media access, the removal of 

opposition candidates from the ballot, and outright fraud have become the unfortunate norm in Russian elections. The result has been a parliament devoid of real opposition—‘‘not a place for discussion,’’ in the words of its own former speaker. 2

Major media outlets have also ceased to be places for discussion. Having taken 

control of all national television networks—the main source of news for Russian citizens—the Kremlin turned them into propaganda outlets that provide laudatory coverage of the authorities and portray Mr. Putin’s opponents as a ‘‘fifth column’’ that 

works at the behest of foreign governments. Many of these opponents are in prison. 

According to Memorial, Russia’s most respected human rights organization, there 

are now 115 political prisoners in Russia—a number comparable with the late Soviet period. 3

They include opposition activists and their family members, such as Sergei 

Udaltsov, Oleg Navalny, and Daria Polydova; citizens jailed for taking part in 

antigovernment demonstrations, including construction engineer Ivan 

Nepomnyashchikh and history lecturer Dmitri Buchenkov (the latter was not even 

present at the rally for which he was charged—but a little Kafka never stopped the 

Russian judicial system); Ukrainians arrested after the annexation of Crimea, including the filmmaker Oleg Sentsov; and Allexei Pichugin, the remaining hostage 

of the ‘‘Yukos case’’ that saw the head of Russia’s largest oil company, Mikhail 

Khodorkovsky, imprisoned for more than a decade for having the tenacity to support 

opposition parties and expose government corruption. 

Sometimes political opponents are dealt with without a recourse to formal procedures. In October 2015, at a hearing of this Commission, I recalled a near-fatal poisoning I had experienced in Moscow earlier that year. 4 Today I could repeat that 

statement word for word, because I have now experienced this for the second time, 

also in Moscow, this past February. An identical picture: poisoning by an ‘‘undefined 

substance’’ leading to multiple organ failure and a coma. Doctors estimated the 

chance of survival at five percent, so I am very fortunate to be sitting here today. 

Many of our colleagues have not been as fortunate. Several opposition activists, 

independent journalists, anticorruption campaigners, and whistleblowers have lost 

lives in the last seventeen years. Two years ago, in the most brazen political assassination in modern Russia, opposition leader and former deputy prime minister 

Boris Nemstov was murdered on a bridge in front of the Kremlin. The official investigation is stalling: while the alleged perpetrators—all of them linked to the Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov—are on trial, the authorities 

have not pursued those who had ordered and organized the killing, and have refused to question potential persons of interest, including Mr. Kadyrov and the commander of the Russian National Guard, General Viktor Zolotov. 5
35 

complaint in Boris Nemstov murder case on the refusal to question Viktor Zolotov.’’ 

Kommersant. May 30, 2016 (in Russian) https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3000683 6 CSCE/OSCE Moscow Document http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/14310?download=true 7 ‘‘A map of the protests.’’ Meduza. March 27, 2017 (in Russian) https://meduza.io/feature/ 

2017/03/27/skolko-lyudey-vyshli-na-ulitsy-26-marta-i-skolko-zaderzhali-karta-protesta 

Under the statutes of the OSCE—and contrary to repeated claims by Kremlin officials—human rights abuses in member states cannot be dismissed as an ‘‘internal 

affair’’ and are ‘‘matters of direct and legitimate concern to all participating 

States.’’ 6 It is important that our OSCE partners speak openly and honestly about 

what is happening in Russia. It is also important—since human rights are a matter 

of international concern—that there be international accountability for those who 

violate them. The U.S. does have a mechanism for such accountability in the 

Magnitsky Act that provides for targeted sanctions on human rights abusers. This 

law should continue to be implemented to its full extent. 

The main responsibility for ensuring the respect for human rights, the rule of law. 

and democratic principles in Russia lies, of course, with Russian citizens. And I 

would respectfully disagree with the subtitle of this hearing that there is ‘‘no end 

in sight’’ to the abuses. Increasingly, the young generation in Russia—the very generation that grew up under Vladimir Putin—is demanding respect and accountability from those in power. Last month, protests against government corruption 

swept across Russia, with tens of thousands of people—mostly young peole—taking 

to the streets despite arrests and intimidation. 7 This movement will continue. And 

these growing demands for accountability are the best guarantee that Russia will 

one day become a country where citizens can exercise the rights and freedoms to 

which they are entitled. 
36 

1Freedom in the World 2017: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world2017 2 Arch Puddington, Breaking Down Democracy: The Goals, Strategies, and Methods of Modern 

Authoritarians, Freedom House, forthcoming. 3 Thomas Carothers and Saskia Brechenmacher, Closing Space: Democracy and Human 

Rights Support under Fire, Carnegie Endowment, 2014: http://carnegieendowment.org/files/closinglspace.pdf 4 https://www.hrw.org/russia-government-against-rights-groups-battle-chronicle 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. DANIEL CALINGAERT

Introduction 

Thank you Chairman Wicker, Co-Chairman Smith, and Members of the Commission. It is an honor to testify before you today. I ask that my full written statement 

be submitted for the record. 

Repression in Russia echoes strongly across Eurasia and beyond. President Vladimir Putin was the primary author of the modern authoritarian’s playbook, which 

has guided strategies of political control since the early 2000s. His methods for suppressing civil society and political opposition have inspired other dictators, and his 

media manipulation has impacted most of Eurasia directly and extended to Europe 

and the United States. The spread of Russia’s repressive practices is amplified by 

the global assault on democratic values, which Putin has spearheaded. 

Democracy has continued to deteriorate in Eurasia. Among the 12 former Soviet 

states (excluding the Baltic states), nine suffered declines in the past year, according to the most recent edition of Freedom House’s annual report Nations in Transit. And Eurasia already is the second most repressive region in the world, only slightly 

better than the Middle East and North Africa. 1A1

U.S. leadership is critical to counteract the spread of Russia’s repressive practices 

and media manipulation and thereby defend American values and interests. 

Modern authoritarian playbook 

Modern authoritarians like Putin create a fac ̧ade of pluralism that masks state 

control over political outcomes, as detailed in a forthcoming Freedom House report. 2

Independent news outlets survive with small audiences while pro-government outlets dominate the media, particularly television, where most people get their news. 

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that mimic the government line or carry 

out innocuous work like public health can operate freely, while groups focused on 

political reform or human rights are highly restricted. Opposition parties compete 

in regular elections but are cut down to size if they start to gain substantial public 

support. 

When election day comes, modern authoritarians rarely face a significant challenge. By then, they have dominated the political narrative through their control of 

the media, muzzled their critics, and blocked the political opposition from organizing 

on a large scale. They also provide or deny access to state resources, including allow 

oligarchs to accumulate vast wealth unencumbered, to ensure loyalty to the regime. 

Putin pioneered the modern authoritarian playbook in the early 2000s and refined 

it over the course of his rule. Other dictators have replicated it. They have followed 

Russia’s example and adopted specific methods of repression introduced by Putin. 

Suppression of civil society 

A key component of this playbook is suppression of civil society, because civil society mobilizes citizens to check the abuses of power committed by authoritarian elites 

and to press for democratic reform. As authoritarian rulers seek to stack the deck 

for their reelection long before election day, to the point where elections are no 

longer competitive, civil society offers the greatest opportunities to change a country’s direction, as occurred with the Euro-Maidan movement in Ukraine and, in 

2011, the Arab uprisings. 

Russia set the example of constraining space for civil society with government 

criticism of foreign funding for local civil society groups and the introduction of a 

restrictive NGO law in 2006. Neighboring countries followed this example, and governments from Ethiopia to Venezuela later pursued a similar assault on civil society. 3 In 2012, Russia passed a foreign agents law that required NGOs to register 

as ‘‘foreign agents’’ if they receive foreign funding to conduct ‘‘political activity.’’ This 

label harks back to the Soviet term used to describe foreign spies and serves to stigmatize pro-democracy NGOs. Similar legislation was enacted in Kazakhstan, debated but ultimately rejected in Kyrgyzstan, and drafted in Hungary. 

A foreign agents law can debilitate political reform and human rights groups. In 

Russia, 158 groups were designated as ‘‘foreign agents’’ and 30 have shut down, according to Human Rights Watch. 4 Even when not enacted, the debate about foreign 
37 

5 Alexander Kondakov, Prestuplenia na pochve nenavisti protiv LGBT [Hate Crimes against 

LGBT Persons], Centre for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2017. 6 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/world/europe/french-election-russia.html?lr=0 7 David Satter, The Last Gasp of Empire: Russia’s Attempts to Control the Media in the 

Former Soviet Republics, National Endowment for Democracy, January 2014: http:// 

www.cima.ned.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/02/CIMA-Russia%20report—David%20Satter.pdf 8 http://www.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/189164/russian-western-media-battle-influence.aspx 9 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spreadfakenews-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712- 

716af66098felstory.html?tid=sslmail&utmlterm=.9aefc7291d7b 

agents feeds a pernicious narrative aimed at vilifying civil society. This narrative 

portrays civil society groups as venal paid agents of foreign forces that seek to impose alien agendas and dilute national sovereignty. Authoritarian rulers like Putin 

use this narrative to distract attention from the real issue—from their efforts to 

deny citizens fundamental freedoms. The portrayal of civic activists as unpatriotic 

is particularly pernicious, as these activists in fact show true patriotism in devoting 

their time and often running serious risks to expose corruption, observe elections, 

and give citizens a greater voice in how they are governed. 

The false narrative of civil society serving foreign interests was reinforced by Russia’s introduction in 2013 of the anti-LGBT ‘‘propaganda’’ law, which penalizes 

‘‘propaganda’’ of homosexuality. Putin made an issue of so-called LGBT propaganda 

to depict human rights defenders as purveyors of decadent Western influence intent 

on imposing their alien values on traditional Russian society. The anti-LGBT law 

advances this false narrative, undermines respect for human rights, and causes serious harm to Russians. It led to a surge in hate crimes. From 2012 to 2015, annual 

murders of LGBT persons in Russia rose from 14 to 27. 5

The introduction of repressive legislation like the foreign agents law and antiLGBT law serves to mobilize the justice system in constraining rather than defending the rights of citizens and to give a patina of legitimacy to the government’s effort to crush dissent. 

Media manipulation 

While Russia’s repressive practices have echoed beyond its borders, its media manipulation affects other countries directly. 

Media manipulation is a sophisticated new form of influence that combines facts, 

exaggerations, distortions, and outright fabrications to shape public opinions. The 

influence often relies on high-quality productions and entertaining content, for instance by RT (formerly Russia Today), or on social media to amplify rumors or blatant falsehoods to a significant audience. The reach of these rumors and falsehoods 

in social media at times prompts coverage in mainstream media, as happened with 

rumors about presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron in France. 6

Russia manipulates the media space to advance narratives that run counter to 

verifiable facts but serve its interests. These narratives compete with credible news 

coverage for attention in Eurasia and Europe. They challenge the very notion of objective truth and thereby aim to breed cynicism and weaken trust in democratic institutions. 

Russian television has extensive reach in neighboring countries. It monopolizes 

coverage of international news in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, dominates the media 

space in Belarus, and is viewed by most ethnic Russians in the Baltic states. 7 Russian media has influenced public perceptions in Eurasia. According to a Gallup poll, 

residents in most of the 12 countries of Eurasia find the Russian media’s coverage 

of the situation in Ukraine and Crimea more reliable than Western media coverage. 8

Because Russian TV reaches large audiences in neighboring countries, it can instigate discussions and drive public discourse, as it did on foreign funding for NGOs 

in Kyrgyzstan. And even where its reach is limited, Russian media can spark public 

discussions, as it did in Germany with a false report about a 13-year-old RussianGerman girl raped by migrants. 

During the U.S. election last year, scores of websites routinely peddled Russian 

propaganda, and coordinated efforts on social media amplified false or misleading 

stories, for instance about Hillary Clinton’s health and about electoral irregularities. 

Some of these stories originated from Russian state-funded broadcasters RT or Sputnik. 9

International norms 

At the same time as Russia presents a model for political control by authoritarian 

rulers, it seeks to undercut the ability of international organizations, including the 

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to protect human 
38 

rights and democratic standards. For example, Russia blocked the reappointment of 

the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities, because it objected to her 

statement in 2014 that she found no evidence of rights violations against ethnic 

Russians in Crimea, and has impeded the selection of a new OSCE Representative 

on Freedom of the Media. Russia seeks to avert scrutiny of its human rights record 

and that of like-minded governments and to reinforce the narrative that Russia’s 

purported defense of ‘‘traditional values’’ should take precedence over international 

norms. The Russian government’s emphasis on ‘‘traditional values’’ in fact is a cynical ploy to avoid accountability for its human rights violations. 

Russia’s challenge to international human rights norms is a key part of its broader effort to revise the European order, which the United States was instrumental 

in creating and which has provided the foundation for peace on the continent for 

over 70 years. This order is based to a large extent on the Helsinki Final Act of 

1975, particularly the grand bargain whereby the United States and Western Europe accepted existing borders and the Soviet Union and its communist allies recognized the human dimension as integral to security. This bargain has broken down. 

Russia respects neither human rights nor existing borders, as evident in its intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. 

U.S. interests 

U.S. support for democracy and human rights is integral to the European order 

that provides peace and security. Unless the United States actively defends this 

order, Russia will continue to erode it, and Europe will grow less stable. Expansion 

of Russian influence in Europe is likely to reduce support for the trans-Atlantic alliance and weaken resistance to Russia’s encroachments on the territorial integrity 

of its neighbors. 

The spread of democracy serves U.S. economic interests as well. Democratic countries usually are more reliable partners, more economically successful, and more 

open to foreign trade and investment. Corruption and weak rule of law put U.S. 

businesses at a distinct disadvantage in relation to local competitors with political 

connections, and restrictions on media and civil society, such as internet restrictions, limit the access of American companies to overseas markets. For example, 

LinkedIn was blocked in Russia after a court ruled that the company had failed to 

comply with a law requiring internet companies to store data on Russia citizens 

within the country’s borders. This law gives Russian intelligence services easy access to personal data. 

When the United States defends human rights, it is not imposing its values on 

other countries. Instead, it is holding other governments to account for failing to live 

up to their own laws and international commitments to respect the rights of their 

citizens, including their commitments under the OSCE. 

Recommendations 

To counteract the spread of Russia’s repressive practices and media manipulation, 

the U.S. government should do the following: 

• Staunchly defend the human rights norms established by the OSCE and 

other international conventions. The United States should respond firmly 

and vocally to every serious violation of OSCE commitments by Russia or other 

member governments. 

• Lead democratic countries in publicly criticizing and diplomatically 

pushing back on initiatives to replicate Russia’s repressive practices in 

other countries, such as the Hungarian government’s foreign agents bill. 

• Fully enforce both the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability 

Act and the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which 

provide for U.S. visa bans and asset freezes on foreign officials responsible for 

gross human rights abuses. These targeted sanctions introduce some measure 

of accountability for such officials and serve to deter future violations of human 

rights. Congress should press the President to add more senior Russian officials 

to the Russia sanctions list and to impose sanctions on officials of other governments under the Global Magnitsky Act. 

• Maintain robust funding for U.S. foreign broadcasting, including Radio 

Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America, even in the current context 

of likely cuts in federal spending. These broadcasting services counteract Russian propaganda by providing balanced, fact-based news in local languages. 

• Support independent Russian-language media based outside of Russia so 

that they can sustain their news coverage and expand their audiences. The 

forms of this support-training, technical assistance with business operations, 

material support, etc.-should be determined mainly by these media outlets and 

reinforce their independence and credibility. 
39 

• Continue to provide assistance for human rights and civil society in 

Russia and Eurasia, including support for pro-democracy civic initiatives and 

emergency assistance to human rights defenders. The U.S. government should 

ensure discretion and sensitivity in providing funds for these purposes. 

A firm U.S. response to the spread of Russia’s repressive practices and media manipulation is critical to defend American values, protect the European order that 

has safeguarded peace on the continent, and advance U.S. security and economic interests in Europe and beyond. 

(41) 

M A T E R I A L F O R 

T H E R E C O R D 
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LIST OF INDIVIDUALS RECOGNIZED AS POLITICAL PRISONERS BY THE MEMORIAL

HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER
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