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[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 227 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 227

  Condemning the murder of Boris Nemtsov, offering condolences to his 
family, friends, and colleagues, expressing solidarity with the people 
  of Russia, and calling for an international investigation into this 
                                 crime.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 29, 2015

   Mr. Engel (for himself and Mr. Smith of New Jersey) submitted the 
 following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
  Condemning the murder of Boris Nemtsov, offering condolences to his 
family, friends, and colleagues, expressing solidarity with the people 
  of Russia, and calling for an international investigation into this 
                                 crime.

Whereas, on February 27, 2015, Boris Nemtsov was shot multiple times by unknown 
        assailants while walking across the Great Moskvoretsky Bridge in the 
        shadow of Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral and in full view of the 
        Kremlin's walls and security cameras;
Whereas following the demise of the Soviet Union, Boris Nemtsov led a 
        distinguished political career which included serving as Governor of the 
        Nizhny Novgorod region, a legislator in both chambers of Russia's 
        Federal Assembly, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, and a prominent 
        leader of Russia's democratic opposition;
Whereas since his accession to power in 1999, Vladimir Putin has systematically 
        dismantled the democratic reforms of the 1990s, weakened governing 
        institutions such as the Federal Assembly, established political control 
        over investigatory and judicial organs, increasingly restricted 
        independent media, repressed civil society organizations, and 
        consolidated a corrupt and authoritarian ruling regime;
Whereas Boris Nemtsov was a fearless, vocal, and high-profile critic of the 
        increasing repression and corruption that has characterized Vladimir 
        Putin's rule;
Whereas Vladimir Putin has publicly used the terms ``National Traitors'' and 
        ``Fifth Column'' to describe Boris Nemtsov and other critics and has 
        referred to Russia's human rights activists and civil society leaders as 
        ``jackals'' and ``Judases'' controlled by foreign powers;
Whereas Boris Nemtsov had produced authoritative reports on high-level official 
        corruption, including in the natural resources sector and the 2014 Sochi 
        Winter Olympics and was reportedly planning to release a new report on 
        the presence of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine;
Whereas, on March 23, 2009, while running for mayor in Sochi, Boris Nemtsov was 
        attacked by unknown assailants who threw ammonia in his face;
Whereas in November 2010, Boris Nemtsov was attacked in Moscow's international 
        airport by members of a Kremlin-controlled youth group following his 
        return from speaking at a commemoration in the United States Capitol of 
        the death of Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky at which he urged 
        imposing targeted sanctions on high-ranking Kremlin officials for their 
        complicity in large-scale corruption and human rights violations;
Whereas in January 2011, Boris Nemtsov was jailed for taking part in a peaceful 
        anti-Kremlin protest;
Whereas in 2011 and 2012, Boris Nemtsov helped lead national protests against 
        Vladimir Putin's regime that resulted in the largest anti-government 
        demonstrations since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991;
Whereas, on June 13, 2013, Boris Nemtsov testified before a public hearing of 
        the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate calling 
        the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act ``the most pro-
        Russian law in the history of any foreign parliament . . . if the U.S. 
        wants to show solidarity with the Russian people, the best way to do it 
        is to implement the Magnitsky Act'';
Whereas Boris Nemtsov, even hours before his assassination, was planning a 
        public protest against Putin's regime for March 1, 2015;
Whereas Putin has announced that he will personally take control of Russia's 
        official investigation into Nemtsov's murder;
Whereas the reaction of government-controlled media to Boris Nemtsov's 
        assassination has been to defame the victim and advance bizarre and 
        offensive conspiracies, including that the United States may have been 
        behind the murder;
Whereas Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has publicly stated that Boris Nemtsov's 
        assassination was an anti-Kremlin provocation thereby sending a clear 
        signal to investigatory authorities;
Whereas the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office stated 
        that the investigation was pursuing several possible motives, including 
        ``a provocation to destabilize the political situation in the country, 
        where the figure of Nemtsov could have become a sort of sacrificial 
        victim for those who stop at nothing to achieve their political goals'', 
        as well as an assassination by ``radical personalities'' from Ukraine or 
        Islamic extremists, among other highly implausible scenarios;
Whereas in June 2012, Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia's Investigative 
        Committee drove Sergei Sokolov, a Russian journalist for Novaya Gazeta, 
        the independent outlet that employed Anna Politkovskya and three other 
        murdered journalists to a forest near Moscow where he threatened to 
        behead, dismember, and then ``investigate'' his own murder of Sergei 
        Sokolov;
Whereas Boris Nemtsov publically advocated imposing Magnitsky Act sanctions on 
        Alexander Bastrykin for his complicity in the cover up of Sergei 
        Magnitsky's false arrest, torture, and murder and for other violations 
        of human rights;
Whereas based on their past record, Russia's authorities will not conduct an 
        independent, credible, and public investigation into the circumstances 
        leading to the murder of Boris Nemtsov;
Whereas the United Nations has established guidelines for the establishment of 
        Commissions of Inquiry to investigate extra-legal, arbitrary, and 
        summary executions;
Whereas Russia is a participating state of the Organization for Security and Co-
        operation in Europe (OSCE) and is bound by its commitments to democratic 
        norms and fundamental freedoms;
Whereas the Moscow Mechanism of OSCE provides the option of sending missions of 
        experts to assist participating States in resolving particular questions 
        or problems related to human rights in their investigations;
Whereas OSCE's 1991 Moscow Document declared that the ``commitments undertaken 
        in the field of the human dimension . . . are matters of direct and 
        legitimate concern to all participating States and do not belong 
        exclusively to the internal affairs of the State concerned''; and
Whereas, on March 1, 2015, tens of thousands gathered in the streets of Moscow, 
        in the largest public demonstration since those Nemtsov helped organize 
        in 2011 and 2012, in order to mourn his death, exercising their right of 
        free speech and peaceful assembly that he promoted and defended, and to 
        call for justice following his murder: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) condemns the brutal and cowardly murder of Boris 
        Nemtsov and the climate of fear, hatred, and impunity that 
        surrounds this and other political murders in Russia;
            (2) offers condolences to the family, friends, and 
        colleagues of Boris Nemstov as they mourn his death;
            (3) expresses solidarity with the people of Russia who are 
        struggling against great odds to build a freer, more just, and 
        prosperous future;
            (4) reaffirms the United States commitment to continue to 
        support Russia's democratic opposition;
            (5) calls on the President to make greater use of the 
        Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act;
            (6) calls on the participating States of the Organization 
        for Security and Co-operation in Europe to invoke the Moscow 
        Mechanism and conduct an international investigation into the 
        circumstances that led to Boris Nemtsov's murder; and
            (7) calls on the Government of Russia to establish a 
        Commission of Inquiry consistent with United Nations guidelines 
        and to cooperate fully with any international investigation or 
        assessment of Boris Nemstov's murder.
                                 <all>
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