106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. CON. RES. 352
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas almost all of the large printing plants, publishing
houses, and newspaper distribution companies, several
leading news agencies, and almost all of the nationwide
television frequencies and broadcasting facilities in the
Russian Federation remain under government control,
despite the extensive privatization of state-owned enter-
prises in other sectors of the Russian economy;
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Whereas the ‘‘Press Freedom Survey 2000’’ reported by
‘‘Freedom House’’ of Washington, D.C., stated that the
approximately 2,500 regional and rural newspapers in
Russia outside of Moscow are almost completely owned
by local or provincial governments;
Whereas the Government of Russia is able to suspend or re-
voke broadcast and publishing licenses and apply exorbi-
tant taxes and fees on the independent media;
Whereas, in 1999, a major television network controlled by
the Russian Government canceled the program ‘‘Top Se-
cret’’ after it reported on alleged corruption at high levels
of the government;
Whereas, in July 1999, the Government of Russia created a
new Ministry for Press, Television and Radio Broad-
casting, and Mass Communications;
Whereas, in August 1999, the editors of fourteen of Russia’s
leading news publications sent an open letter to then
Russian President Boris Yeltsin stating that high-rank-
ing officials of the government were putting pressure on
the mass media, particularly through unwarranted raids
by tax police;
Whereas Mikhail Lesin, Minister for Press, Television and
Radio Broadcasting, and Mass Communications, stated
in October 1999 that the Russian Government would
change its policies towards the mass media so as to ad-
dress ‘‘aggression’’ by the Russian press;
Whereas the Russian Federal Security Service or ‘‘FSB’’ is
reportedly implementing a technical regulation known as
‘‘SORM–2’’ by which it could reroute, in real time, all
electronic transmissions over the Internet through FSB
offices for purposes of surveillance, a likely violation of
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the Russian constitution’s provisions concerning the right
to privacy of private communications, according to
Aleksei Simonov, President of the Russian ‘‘Glasnost De-
fense Foundation’’, a nongovernmental human rights or-
ganization;
Whereas such surveillance under SORM–2 would allow the
Russian Federal Security Service access to passwords, fi-
nancial transactions, and confidential company informa-
tion, among other transmissions;
Whereas it is reported that over one hundred Russian jour-
nalists have been killed over the past decade, with few if
any of the government investigations into those murders
resulting in arrests, prosecutions, or convictions;
Whereas numerous observers of Russian politics have noted
the blatant misuse of the leading Russian television chan-
nels, controlled by the Russian Government, to under-
mine popular support for political rivals of those sup-
porting the government in the run-up to parliamentary
elections held in December 1999;
Whereas it has been reported that Russian television stations
controlled by the Russian Government were used to dis-
parage opponents of Vladimir Putin during the campaign
for the presidency in the beginning of this year and
whereas it has been reported that political advertisements
by those candidates were routinely relegated by those sta-
tions to slots outside of prime time coverage;
Whereas manipulation of the media by the Russian Govern-
ment appeared intent on portraying the Russian military
attack on the separatist Republic of Chechnya to the
maximum political advantage of the Russian Government;
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Whereas in December 1999 two correspondents for ‘‘Reuters
News Agency’’ and the ‘‘Associated Press’’ were report-
edly accused of being foreign spies after reporting high
Russian casualty figures in the war in Chechnya;
Whereas the arrest in January 2000, subsequent treatment
by the Russian military, and prosecution by the Russian
Government of Andrei Babitsky, a correspondent for
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty covering the war in
Chechnya, have constituted a violation of commitments
made by the Russian Government to foster freedom of
speech and of the press, and have reportedly constituted
a violation of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federa-
tion;
Whereas in January 2000 Aleksandr Khinshtein, a reporter
for the newspaper ‘‘Moskovsky Komsomolets’’, was or-
dered by the Russian Federal Security Service to enter
a clinic over 100 miles from his home for a psychiatric
examination after he accused top Russian officials of ille-
gal activities and such detainment in psychiatric wards
was previously employed by the former Soviet regime to
stifle dissent;
Whereas the Russian newspaper ‘‘Novaya Gazeta’’ was offi-
cially warned by the Russian Ministry of the Press for its
printing of an interview with Aslan Maskhadov, the elect-
ed President of the Republic of Chechnya; an entire issue
of ‘‘Novaya Gazeta’’, including several articles alleging
massive campaign finance violations by the presidential
campaign of Vladimir Putin, was lost to unidentified
computer ‘‘hackers’’; and a journalist for ‘‘Novaya
Gazeta’’ was savagely beaten in May of this year;
Whereas President Thomas Dine of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty on March 14th, 2000, condemned the Russian
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Government’s expanding efforts to intimidate the mass
media, stating that those actions threaten the chances for
democracy and rule of law in Russia;
Whereas ‘‘NTV’’, the only national independent television
station, which reaches half of Russia and is credited with
professional and balanced news programs, has frequently
broadcast news stories critical of Russian Government
policies;
Whereas on May 11, 2000, masked officers of the Russian
Federal Security Service carrying assault weapons raided
the offices of ‘‘Media-Most’’, the corporate owner of NTV
and other independent media;
Whereas the May 11th raid on Media-Most represented a
failure of recourse to normal legal mechanisms and con-
veyed the appearance of a politically-motivated attack on
Russian independent media;
Whereas the raid on Media-Most was carried out under the
authority of President Putin and Russian Government
ministers who have not criticized or repudiated that ac-
tion;
Whereas on June 12, 2000, Vladimir Gusinsky, owner of
NTV and other leading independent media was suddenly
arrested;
Whereas President Putin claimed not to have known of the
planned arrest of Vladimir Gusinsky;
Whereas the continued functioning of an independent media
is a vital attribute of Russian democracy and an impor-
tant obstacle to the return of authoritarian or totalitarian
dictatorship in Russia; and
Whereas a free news media can exist only in an environment
that is free of state control of the news media, that is
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free of any form of state censorship or official coercion
of any kind, and that is protected and guaranteed by the
rule of law: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That the Congress—
(1) expresses its continuing, strong support for
freedom of speech and the independent media in the
Russian Federation;
(2) expresses its strong concern over the failure
of the government of the Russian Federation to pri-
vatize major segments of the Russian media, thus
retaining the ability of Russian officials to manipu-
late the media for political or corrupt ends;
(3) expresses its strong concern over the pat-
tern of Russian officials’ surveillance and physical,
economic, legal, and political intimidation of Russian
citizens and of the Russian media that has now be-
come apparent in Russia;
(4) expresses its strong concern over the pat-
tern of manipulation of the Russian media by Rus-
sian Government officials for political and possibly
corrupt purposes that has now become apparent;
(5) expresses profound regret and dismay at the
detention and continued prosecution of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Andrei Babitsky
and condemns those breaches of Russian legal proce-
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dure and of Russian Government commitments to
the rights of Russian citizens that have reportedly
occurred in his detention and prosecution;
(6) expresses strong concern over the breaches
of Russian legal procedure that have reportedly oc-
curred in the course of the May 11th raid by the
Russian Federal Security Service on Media-Most
and the June 12th arrest of Vladimir Gusinsky; and
(7) calls on the President of the United States
to express to the President of the Russian Federa-
tion his strong concern for freedom of speech and
the independent media in the Russian Federation
and to emphasize the concern of the United States
that official pressures against the independent media
and the political manipulation of the state-owned
media in Russia are incompatible with democratic
norms.
SEC. 2. TRANSMITTAL TO SECRETARY OF STATE.
The Clerk of the House of Representatives shall
transmit a copy of this resolution to the Secretary of State
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with the request that it be forwarded to the President of
the Russian Federation.
Passed the House of Representatives June 19, 2000.
Attest:
Clerk.