•HRES 958 IH 
has been in pretrial detention since November 1, 2017, 
for alleged extortion charges; 
Whereas Igor Rudnikov’s detention and charges were criti-
cized 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 partici-
pating in peaceful demonstrations, in a ruling Amnesty 
International has described as ‘‘a profound injustice’’; 
Whereas Anastasia Shevchenko, an activist in the Open Rus-
sia movement, has been held under house arrest since 
January 23, 2019, on the charge of belonging to an ‘‘un-
desirable’’ organization and has been designated by Am-
nesty 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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•HRES 958 IH 
Whereas, on February 10, 2020, seven activists from Rus-
sia’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-treat-
ment to extract confessions, and periods held incommuni-
cado; 
Whereas Human Rights Watch described the case as an ex-
ample of the Russian authorities ‘‘abusing counterter-
rorism laws to silence critics and deny fundamental 
human rights’’; 
Whereas, on June 18, 2019, the Department of State af-
firmed that ‘‘the United States is deeply concerned by 
the growing number of individuals . . . identified by 
credible human rights organizations as political and reli-
gious prisoners held by the Government of the Russian 
Federation’’ and called on the Government of the Rus-
sian 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 reli-
gious practice’’; and 
Whereas, on January 28, 2020, 43 parliamentarians from 16 
European countries introduced a Resolution in the Par-
liamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to appoint 
a rapporteur ‘‘to examine the growing crisis with politi-
cally motivated imprisonments in the Russian Federa-
tion’’: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) condemns the practice of politically moti-
vated imprisonment in the Russian Federation that 
violates the country’s international obligations on 
human rights and the rule of law and expresses its 
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•HRES 958 IH 
solidarity with all those unjustly imprisoned in the 
Russian Federation; 
(2) calls on the Government of the Russian 
Federation to immediately release individuals des-
ignated by the Memorial Human Rights Center as 
political prisoners under the criteria of the Par-
liamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Reso-
lution 1900 (2012), including Alexey Pichugin, Igor 
Rudnikov, Konstantin Kotov, Anastasia Shevchenko, 
Yuri Dmitriev, and Dennis Christensen; 
(3) urges the United States Government, in all 
its interactions with the Government of the Russian 
Federation, to raise individual cases of Russian po-
litical prisoners and advocate for their release; and 
(4) 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), the 
Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act 
(subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114–328), and 
other applicable United States statutory authorities 
to designate officials of the Government of the Rus-
sian Federation who are responsible for human 
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rights abuses in the form of politically motivated im-
prisonment. 
Æ 
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