IV 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 588 

Expressing the sense of the United States House of Representatives that 

the trial by the Government of the Russian Federation of 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 Russia’s judicial system. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 26, 2009 

Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself, Mr. WOLF, and Mr. WEXLER) submitted the 

following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the United States House of Representatives that the trial by the Government of the 

Russian Federation of 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 Russia’s judicial system. 

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

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’’; 

Whereas the United States and the Russian Federation will 

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•HRES 588 IH 

operation 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 Russia’s top priorities; 

Whereas two of the most prominent cases of Russian abuse 

of civil liberties and injustice involve the Yukos Oil Company, its president, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, who were convicted and 

sentenced in May 2005 to serve nine 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 

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev that violate both Russian domestic law and international legal norms; 

Whereas at a press conference in May 2005, President 

George Bush stated ‘‘it appeared to us, or at least people 

in my Administration, that it looked like [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 the 2005 U.S. Department of State Human Rights 

Report confirmed that ‘‘the arrest and conviction of 


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Khodorkovsky raised concerns about the rule of law, including the independence of the courts, the right to due 

process, the sanctity of contracts and property rights and 

the lack of a predictable tax regime’’; 

Whereas Amnesty International, Freedom House, and other 

prominent international human rights organizations have 

cited the conviction and imprisonment of Mr. 

Khodorkovsky as evidence of the arbitrary and political 

use of the legal system and the lack of a truly independent judiciary in today’s 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 his country; 

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

for parole, Russian prosecutors brought new charges 

against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, accusing them of 

embezzling $20 billion in Yukos oil revenues; 

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

most distinguished and renown human rights lawyers and 

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

Whereas in August 2007, Switzerland’s highest court denied 

Russian authorities access to Yukos documents on the 

basis that the case against Yukos and its principal executives and core shareholders, specifically Mr. 

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

Whereas courts in the United Kingdom, 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 Mr. Lebedev’s rights to liberty 

and security were violated during his arrest and subsequent pretrial detention, and ordered Russia to pay him 

$14,230 as compensation; 

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 

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, Mr. Khodorkovsky was denied 

parole on the grounds that he refused to take part in vocational training in sewing and for his alleged failure to 

keep his hands behind his back during a jail walk; 

Whereas, on October 8, 2008, Mr. Khodorkovsky was placed 

in solitary confinement for 12 days for giving a written 

interview to the Russian edition of Esquire magazine, deVerDate Nov 24 2008 06:35 Jun 27, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR588.IH HR588

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spite the fact that the interview had previously been approved; 

Whereas, on October 25, 2008, the U.S. Department of State 

issued a statement marking the fifth anniversary of Mr. 

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 Putin, stated that ‘‘[o]ne 

of the best known political prisoners is Mr. 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’’; 

Whereas, on February 24, 2009, human rights lawyer Karina 

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 


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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 United 

States 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 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 wrote an 

editorial noting that the new charges and trial against 

Mr. 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’’; 

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 noted ‘‘the serious human rights concerns raised by 

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


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‘‘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 House of Rep2 resentatives that— 

3 (1) Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev 

4 are prisoners who have been denied basic due proc5 ess rights under international law and the laws of 

6 the Russian Federation for political reasons; 

7 (2) in light of the record of selective prosecu8 tion, politicization, and abuse of process involved in 

9 their cases, and as a demonstration of Russia’s com10 mitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of 

11 law, the new criminal charges brought by Russian 

12 authorities against Mr. Khodorkovsky and Mr. 

13 Lebedev should be withdrawn; 

14 (3) the standing of the Russian Federation as 

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1 sion, an independent judiciary, human rights, and 

2 the rule of law would be validated by paroling these 

3 two individuals, both of whom have served more 

4 than half their sentences; and 

5 (4) the Russian Federation is encouraged to 

6 take these actions to support democratic principles 

7 and human rights in furtherance of a new and more 

8 positive relationship between the United States and 

9 Russia and a new era of mutual cooperation. 

Æ 


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