H. R. 6156—7 
SEC. 302. TERMINATION OF APPLICATION OF TITLE IV OF THE TRADE 
ACT OF 1974 TO PRODUCTS OF MOLDOVA. 
(a) PRESIDENTIAL DETERMINATIONS AND EXTENSION OF NON-
DISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT.—Notwithstanding any provision of 
title IV of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2431 et seq.), the 
President may— 
(1) determine that such title should no longer apply to 
Moldova; and 
(2) after making a determination under paragraph (1) with 
respect to Moldova, proclaim the extension of nondiscriminatory 
treatment (normal trade relations treatment) to the products 
of Moldova. 
(b) TERMINATION OF APPLICABILITY OF TITLE IV.—On and after 
the date on which the President extends nondiscriminatory treat-
ment to the products of Moldova pursuant to subsection (a), title 
IV of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2431 et seq.) shall cease 
to apply to Moldova. 
TITLE IV—SERGEI MAGNITSKY RULE OF 
LAW ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2012 
SEC. 401. SHORT TITLE. 
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law 
Accountability Act of 2012’’. 
SEC. 402. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) The United States aspires to a mutually beneficial 
relationship with the Russian Federation based on respect for 
human rights and the rule of law, and supports the people 
of the Russian Federation in their efforts to realize their full 
economic potential and to advance democracy, human rights, 
and the rule of law. 
(2) The Russian Federation— 
(A) is a member of the United Nations, the Organiza-
tion for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council 
of Europe, and the International Monetary Fund; 
(B) has ratified the Convention against Torture and 
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punish-
ment, the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights, and the United Nations Convention against Corrup-
tion; and 
(C) is bound by the legal obligations set forth in the 
European Convention on Human Rights. 
(3) States voluntarily commit themselves to respect obliga-
tions and responsibilities through the adoption of international 
agreements and treaties, which must be observed in good faith 
in order to maintain the stability of the international order. 
Human rights are an integral part of international law, and 
lie at the foundation of the international order. The protection 
of human rights, therefore, particularly in the case of a country 
that has incurred obligations to protect human rights under 
an international agreement to which it is a party, is not left 
exclusively to the internal affairs of that country. 
(4) Good governance and anti-corruption measures are 
instrumental in the protection of human rights and in achieving
H. R. 6156—8 
sustainable economic growth, which benefits both the people 
of the Russian Federation and the international community 
through the creation of open and transparent markets. 
(5) Systemic corruption erodes trust and confidence in 
democratic institutions, the rule of law, and human rights 
protections. This is the case when public officials are allowed 
to abuse their authority with impunity for political or financial 
gains in collusion with private entities. 
(6) The Russian nongovernmental organization INDEM has 
estimated that bribes by individuals and businesses in the 
Russian Federation amount to hundreds of billions of dollars 
a year, an increasing share of the country’s gross domestic 
product. 
(7) Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky died on November 16, 
2009, at the age of 37, in Matrosskaya Tishina Prison in 
Moscow, Russia, and is survived by a mother, a wife, and 
2 sons. 
(8) On July 6, 2011, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev’s 
Human Rights Council announced the results of its independent 
investigation into the death of Sergei Magnitsky. The Human 
Rights Council concluded that Sergei Magnitsky’s arrest and 
detention was illegal; he was denied access to justice by the 
courts and prosecutors of the Russian Federation; he was inves-
tigated by the same law enforcement officers whom he had 
accused of stealing Hermitage Fund companies and illegally 
obtaining a fraudulent $230,000,000 tax refund; he was denied 
necessary medical care in custody; he was beaten by 8 guards 
with rubber batons on the last day of his life; and the ambulance 
crew that was called to treat him as he was dying was delib-
erately kept outside of his cell for one hour and 18 minutes 
until he was dead. The report of the Human Rights Council 
also states the officials falsified their accounts of what happened 
to Sergei Magnitsky and, 18 months after his death, no officials 
had been brought to trial for his false arrest or the crime 
he uncovered. The impunity continued in April 2012, when 
Russian authorities dropped criminal charges against Larisa 
Litvinova, the head doctor at the prison where Magnitsky died. 
(9) The systematic abuse of Sergei Magnitsky, including 
his repressive arrest and torture in custody by officers of the 
Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation that Mr. 
Magnitsky had implicated in the embezzlement of funds from 
the Russian Treasury and the misappropriation of 3 companies 
from his client, Hermitage Capital Management, reflects how 
deeply the protection of human rights is affected by corruption. 
(10) The politically motivated nature of the persecution 
of Mr. Magnitsky is demonstrated by— 
(A) the denial by all state bodies of the Russian Federa-
tion of any justice or legal remedies to Mr. Magnitsky 
during the nearly 12 full months he was kept without 
trial in detention; and 
(B) the impunity since his death of state officials he 
testified against for their involvement in corruption and 
the carrying out of his repressive persecution. 
(11) The Public Oversight Commission of the City of 
Moscow for the Control of the Observance of Human Rights 
in Places of Forced Detention, an organization empowered by
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Russian law to independently monitor prison conditions, con-
cluded on December 29, 2009, ‘‘A man who is kept in custody 
and is being detained is not capable of using all the necessary 
means to protect either his life or his health. This is a responsi-
bility of a state which holds him captive. Therefore, the case 
of Sergei Magnitsky can be described as a breach of the right 
to life. The members of the civic supervisory commission have 
reached the conclusion that Magnitsky had been experiencing 
both psychological and physical pressure in custody, and the 
conditions in some of the wards of Butyrka can be justifiably 
called torturous. The people responsible for this must be pun-
ished.’’. 
(12) Sergei Magnitsky’s experience, while particularly illus-
trative of the negative effects of official corruption on the rights 
of an individual citizen, appears to be emblematic of a broader 
pattern of disregard for the numerous domestic and inter-
national human rights commitments of the Russian Federation 
and impunity for those who violate basic human rights and 
freedoms. 
(13) The second trial, verdict, and sentence against former 
Yukos executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev 
evoke serious concerns about the right to a fair trial and 
the independence of the judiciary in the Russian Federation. 
The lack of credible charges, intimidation of witnesses, viola-
tions of due process and procedural norms, falsification or with-
holding of documents, denial of attorney-client privilege, and 
illegal detention in the Yukos case are highly troubling. The 
Council of Europe, Freedom House, and Amnesty International, 
among others, have concluded that they were charged and 
imprisoned in a process that did not follow the rule of law 
and was politically influenced. Furthermore, senior officials 
of the Government of the Russian Federation, including First 
Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, have acknowledged that 
the arrest and imprisonment of Khodorkovsky were politically 
motivated. 
(14) According to Freedom House’s 2011 report entitled 
‘‘The Perpetual Battle: Corruption in the Former Soviet Union 
and the New EU Members’’, ‘‘[t]he highly publicized cases of 
Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer who died in pretrial 
detention in November 2009 after exposing a multimillion- 
dollar fraud against the Russian taxpayer, and Mikhail 
Khodorkovsky, the jailed business magnate and regime critic 
who was sentenced at the end of 2010 to remain in prison 
through 2017, put an international spotlight on the Russian 
state’s contempt for the rule of law * * *. By silencing influential 
and accomplished figures such as Khodorkovsky and Magnitsky, 
the Russian authorities have made it abundantly clear that 
anyone in Russia can be silenced.’’. 
(15) The tragic and unresolved murders of Nustap 
Abdurakhmanov, Maksharip Aushev, Natalya Estemirova, 
Akhmed Hadjimagomedov, Umar Israilov, Paul Klebnikov, 
Anna Politkovskaya, Saihadji Saihadjiev, and Magomed Y. 
Yevloyev, the death in custody of Vera Trifonova, the disappear-
ances of Mokhmadsalakh Masaev and Said-Saleh Ibragimov, 
the torture of Ali Israilov and Islam Umarpashaev, the near- 
fatal beatings of Mikhail Beketov, Oleg Kashin, Arkadiy 
Lander, and Mikhail Vinyukov, and the harsh and ongoing
H. R. 6156—10 
imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Alexei Kozlov, Platon 
Lebedev, and Fyodor Mikheev further illustrate the grave 
danger of exposing the wrongdoing of officials of the Govern-
ment of the Russian Federation, including Chechen leader 
Ramzan Kadyrov, or of seeking to obtain, exercise, defend, 
or promote internationally recognized human rights and free-
doms. 
(b) SENSE
OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress that 
the United States should continue to strongly support, and provide 
assistance to, the efforts of the Russian people to establish a vibrant 
democratic political system that respects individual liberties and 
human rights, including by enhancing the provision of objective 
information through all relevant media, such as Radio Liberty 
and the internet. The Russian Government’s suppression of dissent 
and political opposition, the limitations it has imposed on civil 
society and independent media, and the deterioration of economic 
and political freedom inside Russia are of profound concern to 
the United States Government and to the American people. 
SEC. 403. DEFINITIONS. 
In this title: 
(1) ADMITTED; ALIEN.—The terms ‘‘admitted’’ and ‘‘alien’’ 
have the meanings given those terms in section 101 of the 
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101). 
(2) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES.—The term 
‘‘appropriate congressional committees’’ means— 
(A) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee 
on Financial Services, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
the Committee on Homeland Security, and the Committee 
on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives; and 
(B) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee 
on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, the Committee 
on Foreign Relations, the Committee on Homeland Security 
and Governmental Affairs, and the Committee on the 
Judiciary of the Senate. 
(3) FINANCIAL INSTITUTION.—The term ‘‘financial institu-
tion’’ has the meaning given that term in section 5312 of 
title 31, United States Code. 
(4) UNITED STATES PERSON.—The term ‘‘United States per-
son’’ means— 
(A) a United States citizen or an alien lawfully 
admitted for permanent residence to the United States; 
or 
(B) an entity organized under the laws of the United 
States or of any jurisdiction within the United States, 
including a foreign branch of such an entity. 
SEC. 404. IDENTIFICATION OF PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE 
DETENTION, ABUSE, AND DEATH OF SERGEI MAGNITSKY 
AND OTHER GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the appro-
priate congressional committees a list of each person who the Presi-
dent determines, based on credible information— 
(1) is responsible for the detention, abuse, or death of 
Sergei Magnitsky, participated in efforts to conceal the legal 
liability for the detention, abuse, or death of Sergei Magnitsky, 
financially benefitted from the detention, abuse, or death of