H. Res. 156 
In the House of Representatives, U. S., 
March 12, 2019. 
Whereas Boris Nemtsov was a Russian statesman who, over 
25 years of public service, served as a Member of Par-
liament, Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, and 
First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia; 
Whereas throughout his life, Boris Nemtsov showed an un-
wavering commitment to the ideals of democracy, free-
dom, and the rule of law, and to upholding the rights and 
dignity of Russian citizens; 
Whereas Boris Nemtsov was a powerful voice in opposition to 
the authoritarianism and corruption of Vladimir Putin’s 
government, publicizing its abuses, leading street protests 
against election fraud and the war on Ukraine, and suc-
cessfully advocating for international sanctions on human 
rights violators; 
Whereas Boris Nemtsov was co-chairman of a leading opposi-
tion party, won election to the Yaroslavl Regional Duma 
in 2013, and was planning to run for the Russian Par-
liament in 2016 and challenge Vladimir Putin for the 
Presidency in 2018; 
Whereas, on the evening of February 27, 2015, Boris 
Nemtsov was shot in the back and killed as he walked
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across Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge near the Kremlin in 
Moscow; 
Whereas, on March 7 and 8, 2015, Russian authorities ar-
rested five individuals, all of them natives of the Chechen 
Republic, on suspicion of carrying out the assassination, 
while a sixth suspect allegedly blew himself up during the 
attempted arrest; 
Whereas the defendants were tried at the Moscow District 
Military Court, which on June 29, 2017, found them 
guilty of carrying out the assassination of Boris Nemtsov, 
and on July 13, 2017, sentenced them to different prison 
terms; 
Whereas at the time of the assassination, the now-convicted 
gunman, Zaur Dadayev, was serving as a Lieutenant in 
the Internal Troops of the Interior Ministry of the Rus-
sian Federation and as Deputy Battalion Commander in 
the ‘‘Sever’’ (‘‘North’’) Regiment stationed in the 
Chechen Republic, under the command of the Internal 
Troops Commander, General Viktor Zolotov, and the 
Kremlin-backed head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan 
Kadyrov; 
Whereas Ramzan Kadyrov has called Lieutenant Zaur 
Dadayev a ‘‘true patriot’’ and has publicly referred to 
Boris Nemtsov as an ‘‘enemy of Russia’’; 
Whereas by Decree No. 115 issued on March 8, 2015, Presi-
dent Vladimir Putin awarded Ramzan Kadyrov the Order 
of Honor; 
Whereas according to reports published in the RosBusiness-
Consulting (RBC) newspaper on January 20, 2016, Gen-
eral Alexander Bastrykin, chairman of the Investigative 
Committee of the Russian Federation, has on two occa-
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Whereas throughout the proceedings at the Moscow District 
Military Court, the judge repeatedly disallowed questions 
relating to political motives behind the assassination; 
Whereas the Federal Protective Service of the Russian Fed-
eration has refused to release video footage from the se-
curity cameras on Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge from the 
night of the assassination, claiming in a letter to State 
Duma Member Dmitry Gudkov on November 6, 2015, 
that the bridge next to the Kremlin is ‘‘not a protected 
object’’; 
Whereas, on May 18, 2017, the Parliamentary Assembly of 
the Council of Europe appointed Lithuanian Member of 
Parliament Emanuelis Zingeris as its special rapporteur 
on the need to shed light on the background of the mur-
der of Boris Nemtsov, with a mandate to review and re-
port on the case and on the progress of the official Rus-
sian investigation; 
Whereas, on May 24, 2018, the Russian Foreign Ministry in-
formed Emanuelis Zingeris that he is forbidden from en-
tering the Russian Federation; 
Whereas, at its 27th annual session held on July 7 through 
11, 2018, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organiza-
tion for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) 
adopted a resolution urging Russian authorities to ‘‘un-
dertake a new, full and thorough investigation into the 
February 2015 assassination of Boris Nemtsov’’; 
Whereas, on July 8, 2018, the Parliamentary Assembly of the 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe 
held a public event to discuss the need for OSCE over-
sight of the official Russian investigation into the assas-
sination of Boris Nemtsov;
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Whereas the United States and the Russian Federation are 
full members of the Organization for Security and Co-
operation in Europe; 
Whereas the OSCE Moscow Document has established that 
‘‘issues relating to human rights, fundamental freedoms, 
democracy and the rule of law * * * are matters of direct 
and legitimate concern to all participating States and do 
not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the State 
concerned’’; 
Whereas, on February 27, 2018, Washington, DC, designated 
the street in front of the Embassy of the Russian Fed-
eration as ‘‘Boris Nemtsov Plaza’’ to honor Mr. Nemtsov; 
and 
Whereas, on February 22, 2019, the President of the Par-
liamentary Assembly of the OSCE, George Tsereteli, ap-
pointed Swedish Member of Parliament and Vice Presi-
dent of the Assembly Margareta Cederfelt as the 
rapporteur on the investigation of the assassination of 
Boris Nemtsov, with a mandate to review and report on 
the case and on the progress of the official Russian inves-
tigation: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) condemns Vladimir Putin and his regime for 
targeting political opponents and covering up the assas-
sination of Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition leader 
who worked to advance democracy and human rights in 
Russia; 
(2) urges the United States Government, in all its 
interactions with the Government of the Russian Federa-
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tion, to raise the case of the assassination of Boris 
Nemtsov and underscore the necessity of bringing the 
organizers and masterminds to justice; 
(3) supports the efforts by the Organization for Se-
curity and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and its Par-
liamentary Assembly to initiate oversight of the official 
Russian investigation into the assassination of Boris 
Nemtsov; 
(4) calls on the Government of the Russian Federa-
tion to allow an impartial international investigation of 
the assassination of Boris Nemtsov and to cooperate 
with the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE and the 
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 
their ongoing inquiries over this case; 
(5) calls on the Secretary of State and the Sec-
retary of the Treasury to use their authority under the 
Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 
2012 (title IV of Public Law 112–208) and the Global 
Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle F 
of title XII of Public Law 114–328) to designate individ-
uals whom they determine to have been involved in the 
assassination of Boris Nemtsov as perpetrators, orga-
nizers, or masterminds, on the list of specially des-
ignated nationals and blocked persons maintained by the 
Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of
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the Treasury, freezing their assets and making them in-
eligible to receive United States visas; 
(6) calls on the Secretary of State, in consultation 
with the Director of National Intelligence, to prepare 
and submit to Congress a report detailing the cir-
cumstances of the February 27, 2015, assassination of 
Boris Nemtsov, including the list of individuals whom 
they determine to have been involved in the assassination 
as perpetrators, organizers, or masterminds, and identi-
fying what measures, if any, have been taken by the 
Government of the Russian Federation to investigate 
this crime and bring its perpetrators, organizers, and 
masterminds to justice, and evaluating the effectiveness 
of such measures; and 
(7) urges the Secretary of State to take all possible 
steps to— 
(A) investigate the business activities of 
Ramzan Kadyrov and any entities controlled by 
Ramzan Kadyrov outside the Russian Federation; 
and 
(B) determine whether any such activities, or 
any entities facilitating such activities, are in viola-
tion of the sanctions imposed on Ramzan Kadyrov 
pursuant to the authorities provided by the Sergei 
Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012
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(title IV of Public Law 112–208; 22 U.S.C. 5811 
note). 
Attest: 
Clerk.