Title: A resolution condemning the practice of politically motivated imprisonment, calling for the immediate release of political prisoners in the Russian Federation, and urging action by the United States Government to impose sanctions with respect to persons responsible for that form of human rights abuse.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution condemns political imprisonments in Russia and calls on Russia to release its political prisoners. The resolution also urges the United States to advocate for the release of such prisoners and to identify the Russian officials responsible for their imprisonment.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 524 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 524

Condemning the practice of politically motivated imprisonment, calling 
    for the immediate release of political prisoners in the Russian 
Federation, and urging action by the United States Government to impose 
 sanctions with respect to persons responsible for that form of human 
                             rights abuse.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 2, 2020

 Mr. Cardin (for himself, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Coons, Mr. Johnson, and Mrs. 
Shaheen) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Condemning the practice of politically motivated imprisonment, calling 
    for the immediate release of political prisoners in the Russian 
Federation, and urging action by the United States Government to impose 
 sanctions with respect to persons responsible for that form of human 
                             rights abuse.

Whereas the right to liberty and security of a person and the protection from 
        arbitrary imprisonment are among the principal human rights guaranteed 
        by Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
        Rights, Article 23 of the Concluding Document of the Vienna Meeting of 
        the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Article 5 of 
        the European Convention on Human Rights;
Whereas the Russian Federation, as a member of the United Nations, the 
        Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the 
        Council of Europe, is bound by international commitments with regard to 
        human rights and the rule of law;
Whereas, on October 3, 2012, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 
        adopted Resolution 1900 (2012) that defined anyone whose ``detention has 
        been imposed in violation of one of the fundamental guarantees set out 
        in the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols'' or ``is 
        the result of proceedings which were clearly unfair and this appears to 
        be connected with political motives of the authorities'' as a political 
        prisoner;
Whereas, on July 2, 2014, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly adopted the Baku 
        Declaration in which it ``endorses the adoption by the Parliamentary 
        Assembly of the Council of Europe of a resolution confirming the 
        definition of political prisoners'' and ``strongly urges participating 
        states to co-operate with international institutions like the OSCE, to 
        help ensure that . . . there will be no political prisoners in the OSCE 
        area'';
Whereas, based on the criteria of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of 
        Europe Resolution 1900 (2012), the Memorial Human Rights Center, one of 
        the most respected nongovernmental organizations in the Russian 
        Federation, estimates that there are currently more than 300 political 
        prisoners in the Russian Federation;
Whereas the list of Russian political prisoners designated by the Memorial Human 
        Rights Center includes journalists, civil society activists, human 
        rights advocates, participants of peaceful demonstrations, adherents of 
        prohibited religious groups, members of ``undesirable'' organizations, 
        and Ukrainian citizens from the illegally annexed Crimea;
Whereas the longest-serving political prisoner in the Russian Federation, Alexey 
        Pichugin, has been incarcerated since June 19, 2003, in violation of 2 
        rulings by the European Court of Human Rights and the opinion by the 
        United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention;
Whereas opposition activist Konstantin Kotov was sentenced to 4 years' 
        imprisonment on September 5, 2019, for participating in peaceful 
        demonstrations, in a ruling Human Rights Watch has described as ``an 
        outrageous violation of the right to peaceful protest'';
Whereas Anastasia Shevchenko, an activist in the Open Russia movement, has been 
        held under house arrest since January 23, 2019, on the charge of 
        belonging to an ``undesirable'' organization and has been designated by 
        Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience;
Whereas Yuri Dmitriev, a historian and the leader of the Memorial Human Rights 
        Center's branch in the Republic of Karelia 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 citizen of Denmark, 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 Government of the Russian 
        Federation ``engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious 
        freedom'';
Whereas, on February 10, 2020, a court in Penza sentenced 7 activists to prison 
        terms ranging from 6 to 18 years for participation in what authorities 
        alleged was a terrorist organization called ``Network'' after a trial 
        marked by incommunicado detention, torture, and other ill treatment to 
        extract confessions, in what Human Rights Watch has described as an 
        example of the Russian authorities ``abusing counterterrorism laws to 
        silence critics and deny fundamental human rights'';
Whereas, on June 18, 2018, the Department of State affirmed that ``the United 
        States is deeply concerned by the growing number of individuals . . . 
        identified by credible human rights organizations as political and 
        religious prisoners held by the Government of the Russian Federation'' 
        and called on the Government of the Russian 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 
        religious practice'';
Whereas, on January 28, 2020, 43 parliamentarians from 16 European countries 
        introduced a resolution in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of 
        Europe calling for the appointment of a rapporteur ``to examine the 
        growing crisis with politically motivated imprisonments in the Russian 
        Federation''; and
Whereas, according to the Memorial Human Rights Center, the number of political 
        prisoners in the Russian Federation has increased more than 6-fold since 
        2015: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) expresses support for those unjustly imprisoned in the 
        Russian Federation;
            (2) condemns the practice of politically motivated 
        imprisonment in the Russian Federation, which violates the 
        commitments of the Russian Federation to international 
        obligations with respect to human rights and the rule of law;
            (3) calls on the Government of the Russian Federation to 
        immediately release political prisoners, including Alexey 
        Pichugin, Konstantin Kotov, Anastasia Shevchenko, Yuri 
        Dmitriev, and Dennis Christensen;
            (4) urges the United States Government, in all its 
        interactions with the Government of the Russian Federation, to 
        raise individual cases of political prisoners held by the 
        Russian Federation and to press for their release; and
            (5) urges the Secretary of State and the Secretary 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; 22 U.S.C. 5811 note), the Global Magnitsky Human Rights 
        Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114-
        328; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note), and other applicable provisions of 
        law to designate for the imposition of sanctions officials of 
        the Government of the Russian Federation who are responsible 
        for human rights abuses in the form of politically motivated 
        imprisonment.
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