•HRES 806 IH 
President of the Russian Federation for more than two 
consecutive terms’’; 
Whereas Vladimir Putin has been President of the Russian 
Federation for two consecutive terms, the first term last-
ing from May 7, 2000, to May 7, 2008, and the second, 
current, and final term beginning May 7, 2012, and ex-
piring on May 7, 2024; 
Whereas, on July 3, 2020, following votes in both chambers 
of the Federal Assembly and in regional legislatures and 
a nationwide popular vote, President Vladimir Putin 
signed Presidential Decree No. 445 enacting 206 amend-
ments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, in-
cluding an amendment waiving the term limit for him 
personally, allowing him to seek 2 more 6-year Presi-
dential terms after May 7, 2024; 
Whereas the enactment of constitutional amendments had 
been conditioned on approval of such amendments in a 
nationwide vote, referred to by President Vladimir Putin 
as a ‘‘plebiscite’’, that was held between June 25 and 
July 1, 2020, under the unprecedented conditions of the 
COVID–19 pandemic; 
Whereas the 2020 Russian constitutional plebiscite was 
marked by widespread reports of organized voter coer-
cion, multiple voting, ballot-stuffing, and violation of the 
secrecy of the ballot, and by one-sided media coverage in 
favor of the amendments, while opponents of the amend-
ments were not given airtime in the media and had their 
campaign rallies prohibited and their websites blocked; 
Whereas voting was held over 7 days and was conducted not 
only in regular polling places but also in makeshift loca-
tions, including park benches, car trunks, and shopping 
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carts, with ballots stored overnight by the electoral com-
missions with no independent oversight; 
Whereas in violation of the laws of the Russian Federation 
and the commitments of the Russian Federation under 
the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Eu-
rope and the Council of Europe, Russian authorities did 
not invite international observers to monitor the vote and 
limited domestic observers to those appointed by state- 
controlled Public Chambers; 
Whereas according to opinion polls conducted in the runup to 
the plebiscite by the Levada Center, 48 percent of Rus-
sian voters supported waiving Vladimir Putin’s term limit 
while 47 percent were in opposition; 
Whereas according to official figures released by the Central 
Electoral Commission of the Russian Federation, amend-
ments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation were 
supported by 78 percent of those who participated in the 
plebiscite; 
Whereas the Central Electoral Commission of the Russian 
Federation began announcing the results of the plebiscite 
before voting had concluded; 
Whereas according to the Russian nongovernmental organiza-
tion Golos and independent electoral analysts, approxi-
mately 27,000,000 votes, accounting for 37 percent of 
the official total, were fraudulent, making the plebiscite 
the most manipulated vote in the modern history of the 
Russian Federation; 
Whereas in a statement following the plebiscite, the leaders 
of the United States delegation to the Parliamentary As-
sembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation 
in Europe, Senator Roger Wicker and the late Represent-
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•HRES 806 IH 
ative Alcee Hastings, said that ‘‘the outcome of this vote 
was decided long before the ballots were tallied’’ and that 
‘‘State-sponsored fraud, coercion, and obfuscation make 
it impossible to know the true will of the Russian peo-
ple’’; 
Whereas Senator James Risch, then-Chairman of the Com-
mittee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, has stated 
that the ‘‘sham vote, masquerading as a referendum, has 
swept away all remnants of Putin’s legitimacy’’; 
Whereas the Department of State has held that ‘‘[a]round 
the world, as a matter of principle, the United States op-
poses constitutional amendments that favor incumbents 
or extend their terms in office, particularly in contexts 
where necessary conditions for free and fair democratic 
processes are lacking’’; 
Whereas the United States and the Russian Federation are 
participating states of the Organization for Security and 
Co-operation in Europe; and 
Whereas the Document of the Moscow Meeting of the Con-
ference on the Human Dimension of the Conference on 
Security and Co-operation in Europe holds that ‘‘issues 
relating to human rights, fundamental freedoms, democ-
racy 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 con-
cerned’’: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) the 2020 amendments to the Constitution 
of the Russian Federation were enacted in violation 
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of the laws and international commitments of the 
Russian Federation; 
(2) the waiver of the Presidential term limit re-
sulting from those amendments is illegitimate; and 
(3) any attempt by President of the Russian 
Federation Vladimir Putin to remain in office be-
yond the end of his current and final term on May 
7, 2024, shall warrant nonrecognition on the part of 
the United States. 
Æ 
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