IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 958 

Condemning the practice of politically motivated imprisonment and calling 

for the immediate release of political prisoners in the Russian Federation 

and urging action by the United States Government to impose sanctions 

with respect to persons responsible for that form of human rights abuse. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 8, 2020 

Mr. ENGEL (for himself and Mr. MCCAUL) submitted the following resolution; 

which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Condemning the practice of politically motivated imprisonment and calling for the immediate release of political 

prisoners in the Russian Federation and urging action 

by the United States Government to impose sanctions 

with respect to persons responsible for that form of 

human rights abuse. 

Whereas the right to liberty and security of a person and the 

protection from arbitrary imprisonment are among the 

principal human rights guaranteed by Article 9 of the 

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 23 of the Concluding Document of the Vienna Meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Article 5 of the European Convention on 

Human Rights; 


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•HRES 958 IH 

Whereas the Russian Federation, as member of the United 

Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation 

in Europe (OSCE), and the Council of Europe, is bound 

by international commitments with regard to human 

rights and the rule of law; 

Whereas, on October 3, 2012, the Parliamentary Assembly of 

the Council of Europe adopted Resolution 1900 (2012) 

which defined anyone whose ‘‘detention has been imposed 

in violation of one of the fundamental guarantees set out 

in the European Convention on Human Rights and its 

Protocols’’ and ‘‘is the result of proceedings which were 

clearly unfair and . . . appears to be connected with political motives of the authorities’’ as a political prisoner; 

Whereas based on the criteria of the Parliamentary Assembly 

of the Council of Europe Resolution 1900 (2012), the 

Memorial Human Rights Center, a Russian nongovernmental organization, estimates that there are currently 

more than 300 political prisoners in the Russian Federation—a six-fold increase since 2015; 

Whereas the Memorial Human Rights Center list of Russian 

political prisoners includes journalists, civil society activists, human rights advocates, participants of peaceful organizations, and Ukrainian citizens from illegally annexed 

Crimea; 

Whereas the Russian Federation’s longest-detained political 

prisoner, Alexey Pichugin, has been incarcerated since 

June 19, 2003, in violation of two rulings by the European Court of Human Rights and the opinion by the 

United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; 

Whereas, investigative journalist and former editor of the 

independent newspaper Noviye Kolyosa, Igor Rudnikov 


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has been in pretrial detention since November 1, 2017, 

for alleged extortion charges; 

Whereas Igor Rudnikov’s detention and charges were criticized by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the 

Media and Reporters without Borders, calling them 

‘‘clearly trumped-up’’ and ‘‘an act of political revenge’’, 

respectively; 

Whereas opposition activist Konstantin Kotov was sentenced 

to 1.5 years’ imprisonment on April 20, 2020, for participating in peaceful demonstrations, in a ruling Amnesty 

International has described as ‘‘a profound injustice’’; 

Whereas Anastasia Shevchenko, an activist in the Open Russia movement, has been held under house arrest since 

January 23, 2019, on the charge of belonging to an ‘‘undesirable’’ organization and has been designated by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience; 

Whereas Yuri Dmitriev, a leader of Memorial Human Rights 

Center’s branch in the Republic of Karelia region of the 

Russian Federation who has worked to document mass 

burial sites from Stalin-era executions, is being held in 

pretrial detention on charges of child pornography that 

Human Rights Watch has described as ‘‘bogus’’ and part 

of an ongoing ‘‘smear campaign’’; 

Whereas Dennis Christensen, a Jehovah’s Witness and a 

Danish citizen, was sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment 

on February 6, 2019, in a decision condemned by the 

United States Commission on International Religious 

Freedom as part of the broader pattern of the Russian 

Government ‘‘engaging in or tolerating severe violations 

of religious freedom’’; 


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Whereas, on February 10, 2020, seven activists from Russia’s Penza Oblast were sentenced to terms of six to 

eighteen years for alleged membership in a terrorist 

group following a detention marked by torture, ill-treatment to extract confessions, and periods held incommunicado; 

Whereas Human Rights Watch described the case as an example of the Russian authorities ‘‘abusing counterterrorism laws to silence critics and deny fundamental 

human rights’’; 

Whereas, on June 18, 2019, the Department of State affirmed that ‘‘the United States is deeply concerned by 

the growing number of individuals . . . identified by 

credible human rights organizations as political and religious prisoners held by the Government of the Russian 

Federation’’ and called on the Government of the Russian Federation ‘‘to release all those identified as political 

or religious prisoners immediately and cease its use of 

the legal system to suppress dissent and peaceful religious practice’’; and 

Whereas, on January 28, 2020, 43 parliamentarians from 16 

European countries introduced a Resolution in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to appoint 

a rapporteur ‘‘to examine the growing crisis with politically motivated imprisonments in the Russian Federation’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) condemns the practice of politically moti3 vated imprisonment in the Russian Federation that 

4 violates the country’s international obligations on 

5 human rights and the rule of law and expresses its 


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1 solidarity with all those unjustly imprisoned in the 

2 Russian Federation; 

3 (2) calls on the Government of the Russian 

4 Federation to immediately release individuals des5 ignated by the Memorial Human Rights Center as 

6 political prisoners under the criteria of the Par7 liamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Reso8 lution 1900 (2012), including Alexey Pichugin, Igor 

9 Rudnikov, Konstantin Kotov, Anastasia Shevchenko, 

10 Yuri Dmitriev, and Dennis Christensen; 

11 (3) urges the United States Government, in all 

12 its interactions with the Government of the Russian 

13 Federation, to raise individual cases of Russian po14 litical prisoners and advocate for their release; and 

15 (4) calls on the Secretary of State and the Sec16 retary of the Treasury to use their authority under 

17 the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability 

18 Act of 2012 (title IV of Public Law 112–208), the 

19 Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act 

20 (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114–328), and 

21 other applicable United States statutory authorities 

22 to designate officials of the Government of the Rus23 sian Federation who are responsible for human 


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1 rights abuses in the form of politically motivated im2 prisonment. 

Æ 


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