III 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 189 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the trial by the Russian Government 

of businessmen Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev constitutes 

a politically motivated case of selective arrest and prosecution that serves 

as a test of the rule of law and independence of the judicial system 

of Russia. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 18, 2009 

Mr. WICKER (for himself and Mr. CARDIN) submitted the following resolution; 

which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the trial by the 

Russian Government of businessmen Mikhail 

Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev constitutes a politically motivated case of selective arrest and prosecution 

that serves as a test of the rule of law and independence 

of the judicial system of Russia. 

Whereas, on April 1, 2009, President Barack Obama and 

President Dmitry Medvedev issued a joint statement affirming that ‘‘[i]n our relations with each other, we also 

seek to be guided by the rule of law, respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights, and tolerance for different views’’; 


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•SRES 189 IS 

Whereas the United States and Russia, in a spirit of cooperation, will continue the dialogue on the issues affirmed in 

such joint statement at an upcoming summit to be held 

in June 2009; 

Whereas it has been the long-held position of the United 

States to support the development of democracy, rule of 

law, judicial independence, freedom, and respect for 

human rights in the Russian Federation; 

Whereas Russian President Medvedev has called Russia a 

country of ‘‘legal nihilism’’ and issued a new foreign policy doctrine citing ‘‘the supremacy of law in international 

relations’’ as one of the top priorities of Russia; 

Whereas 2 prominent cases involve the Yukos Oil Company 

and its president, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner, 

Platon Lebedev, who were convicted and sentenced in 

May 2005 to serve 9 years in a remote penal camp; 

Whereas Russian authorities confiscated Yukos assets and assigned ownership to a state company that is chaired by 

an official in the Kremlin; harassed, exiled, persecuted, 

and imprisoned many Yukos officers and legal representatives; and issued a series of court rulings against Mr. 

Khodorkovsky and Mr. Lebedev that violate international 

legal norms; 

Whereas at a press conference in May 2005, President 

George Bush stated, ‘‘it appeared to . . . people in my 

Administration, that . . . [Mikhail Khodorkovsky] had 

been judged guilty prior to having a fair trial. In other 

words, he was put in prison, and then was tried’’; 

Whereas, on October 25, 2005, Congressmen Roger Wicker 

and Tom Lantos introduced H. Res. 525, which noted 

the actions that the Russian government had taken with 


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•SRES 189 IS 

respect to Yukos, Mr. Khodorkovsky, and Mr. Lebedev, 

and called upon Russian authorities to prove that the 

cases were not politically motivated, that the Russian judicial system is truly independent and not simply an instrument of the Kremlin, and that the state was not engaged in a campaign to selectively reclaim or re-nationalize private enterprises; 

Whereas, on November 18, 2005, Senators Joe Biden, 

Barack Obama, and John McCain introduced S. Res. 

322, which called the cases against Mr. Khodorkovsky 

and Mr. Lebedev ‘‘politically motivated’’, noted that Mr. 

Khodorkovsky and Mr. Lebedev had not been accorded 

fair, transparent, and impartial treatment, and deplored 

their transfer to remote prison camps; 

Whereas Amnesty International, Freedom House, and other 

prominent international human rights organizations have 

cited the conviction and imprisonment of Mikhail 

Khodorkovsky as evidence of the arbitrary and political 

use of the legal system and the lack of a truly independent judiciary in the Russian Federation; 

Whereas governments, courts, journalists, and human rights 

organizations around the world have expressed concern 

about the prosecution, trial, imprisonment, and treatment 

of the individuals in the Yukos case, and have called on 

President Medvedev to honor his pledge to end ‘‘legal nihilism’’ in Russia; 

Whereas, on February 5, 2007, on the eve of their eligibility 

for parole, Russian prosecutors brought new charges 

against Mr. Khodorkovsky and Mr. Lebedev, accusing 

them of embezzling $20,000,000,000 in Yukos oil revenues; 


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•SRES 189 IS 

Whereas in May 2007, the Prosecutor General in Moscow attempted to disbar Karinna Moskalenko, one of Russia’s 

most distinguished and renown human rights lawyers and 

defense counsel to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in apparent reprisal for actions she had taken on behalf of her client; 

Whereas in August 2007, the highest court of Switzerland 

denied Russian authorities access to Yukos documents on 

the basis that the case against Yukos and its principal 

executives and core shareholders, specifically Mikhail 

Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, had a ‘‘political and 

discriminatory character . . . undermined by the infringement of human rights and the right to defense’’; 

Whereas courts in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Cyprus, 

Liechtenstein, Lithuania, and Switzerland have described 

the Yukos proceeding as politically motivated and have 

rejected motions from Russian prosecutors seeking the 

extradition of Yukos officials or materials for use in trials 

in Russia; 

Whereas, on October 25, 2007, the European Court of 

Human Rights ruled that Platon Lebedev’s rights to liberty and security were violated during his arrest and subsequent pretrial detention; 

Whereas the 2008 Department of State Human Rights Report stated: ‘‘The arrest and conviction of Khodorkovsky 

raised concerns about the right to due process and the 

rule of law, including the independence of courts and the 

lack of a predictable tax regime.’’; 

Whereas, on March 13, 2008, the European Parliament 

issued a resolution calling on the Russian President to 

‘‘review the treatment of imprisoned public figures 

(among them Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon 


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•SRES 189 IS 

Lebedev), whose imprisonment has been assessed by most 

observers as having been politically motivated’’; 

Whereas in July 2008, President Dmitry Medvedev said it 

was essential that Russia ‘‘take all necessary means to 

strengthen the independence of judges’’ since ‘‘it goes 

without saying that pressure is applied, influence is exerted, and direct bribery is often used’’; 

Whereas, on August 22, 2008, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was denied parole on the grounds that he refused to take part 

in vocational training in sewing and that he allegedly 

failed to keep his hands behind his back during a jail 

walk; 

Whereas, on October 25, 2008, the State Department issued 

a statement marking the fifth anniversary of Mikhail 

Khodorkovsky’s arrest, stating ‘‘the conduct of the cases 

against Khodorkovsky and his associates has eroded Russia’s reputation and public confidence in Russian legal 

and judicial institutions’’; 

Whereas, on December 22, 2008, the European Court of 

Human Rights ordered the release of the terminally ill 

former Yukos oil executive Vasily Aleksanyan, who had 

been held in detention since April 6, 2006, despite repeated orders by the European Court that Mr. 

Aleksanyan be treated in a humane fashion for cancer 

and AIDS; 

Whereas in February 2009, Andrei Illarianov, former chief 

economic advisor to President Vladimir Putin, stated that 

‘‘[o]ne of the best known political prisoners is Mikhail 

Khodorkovsky who has been sentenced to 9 years in the 

Siberian camp Krasnokamensk on the basis of purely 

fabricated case against him and his oil company Yukos’’; 


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Whereas, on February 24, 2009, human rights lawyer 

Karinna Moskalenko, said that ‘‘[a]ll verdicts are possible 

in this country. But for people like Khodorkovsky, everything is already planned out and decided as long as the 

political will does not change’’; 

Whereas, on February 25, 2009, Olga Kudeshkina, former 

Moscow court judge who was dismissed from her duties 

in 2004, stated that Moscow City Court ‘‘has turned into 

an institution of settling political, commercial and other 

scores’’ and that ‘‘nobody can be sure that the case will 

be resolved in accordance with the law’’; 

Whereas, on April 2, 2009, Senator Ben Cardin, chair of the 

Helsinki Commission, issued a statement in the Senate in 

which he noted that ‘‘the Council of Europe, Freedom 

House and Amnesty International, among others, have 

concluded that Mr. Khodorkovsky was charged and imprisoned in a process that did not follow the rule of law 

and was politically influenced . . .’’ and that ‘‘the current charges . . . amount to legal hooliganism and highlight the petty meanness of the senior government officials behind this travesty of justice . . . should be 

dropped and the new trial should be abandoned’’; 

Whereas, on April 10, 2009, the New York Times published 

an editorial noting that the new charges and trial against 

Mikhail Khodorkovsky ‘‘are for show, intended only to 

keep [him] and his colleague in prison forever’’; 

Whereas, on April 11, 2009, the Washington Post wrote: ‘‘If 

Mr. Medvedev allows [the Khodorkovsky trial] to go forward to its scripted conclusion—a lengthy extension of 

Mr. Khodorkovsky’s sentence to a Siberian prison 

camp—the point will be proved that Russia still has no 

rule of law but only a ruler’’; 


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•SRES 189 IS 

Whereas, on April 21, 2009, Freedom House, Amnesty International, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, the 

International League for Human Rights, the Lantos 

Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, and the 

Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human 

Rights joined in a letter to President Medvedev in which 

they note ‘‘the serious human rights concerns raised by 

the case so far’’ and call on the Russian Government to 

‘‘ensure that international observers are allowed 

unhindered access to the courtroom’’ to monitor the trial, 

to ‘‘ensure that the rule of law is upheld’’ and that it 

‘‘meets the standards of the Russian Constitution and 

international law’’; 

Whereas the selective disregard for the rule of law by Russian 

officials undermines the standing and status of the Russian Federation among the democratic nations of the 

world; and 

Whereas both Russia and the United States have recently 

elected new presidents that provide the opportunity to review past policies and pursue a new era of mutual cooperation: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that— 

2 (1) Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev 

3 are prisoners who have been denied basic due proc4 ess rights under international law for political rea5 sons; 

6 (2) in light of the record of selective prosecu7 tion, politicization, and abuse of process involved in 

8 their cases, and as a demonstration of Russia’s com9 mitment to democracy, human rights, and the rule 


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•SRES 189 IS 

1 of law, the new criminal charges brought by Russian 

2 authorities against Mr. Khodorkovsky and Mr. 

3 Lebedev should be withdrawn; 

4 (3) the standing of the Russian Federation as 

5 a nation supporting democracy, freedom of expres6 sion, an independent judiciary, human rights, and 

7 the rule of law would move closer to validation by 

8 paroling Mr. Khodorkovsky and Mr. Lebedev, both 

9 of whom have served more than half their sentences; 

10 and 

11 (4) the Russian Federation is encouraged to 

12 take these actions to support democratic principles 

13 and human rights in furtherance of a new and more 

14 positive relationship between the United States and 

15 Russia and a new era of mutual cooperation. 

Æ 


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