[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 571 Introduced in House (IH)]
105th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 571
Expressing sympathy to the family and colleagues of Lev Yakovlevich
Rokhlin, and expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that
the President of the United States should urge the Russian Government
to promptly and thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding
the death of Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin and to provide a full accounting
of the circumstances as soon as practicable, but not later than
November 1999.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 2, 1998
Mr. Weldon of Pennsylvania (for himself, Mr. Pickett, Mr. Bartlett of
Maryland, Mr. Watts of Oklahoma, Mr. Taylor of North Carolina, Mr.
Thornberry, Ms. Granger, Mr. Pappas, and Mr. Cunningham) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on
International Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing sympathy to the family and colleagues of Lev Yakovlevich
Rokhlin, and expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that
the President of the United States should urge the Russian Government
to promptly and thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding
the death of Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin and to provide a full accounting
of the circumstances as soon as practicable, but not later than
November 1999.
Whereas Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin had a distinguished military career that
included command of a regime in Afghanistan, command of a division that
quelled a revolt in Azerbaijan, and command of the forces that captured
a Presidential palace in Grozny from separatists during the war in
Chechnya in 1995;
Whereas Lev Rokhlin retired from his distinguished military career as a two-star
general;
Whereas Lev Rokhlin was awarded the Hero of Russia Gold Star for his skill and
valor in service in Chechnya;
Whereas Lev Rokhlin refused to accept the Hero of Russia Gold Star from Pavel
Grachev, then Minister of Defense of Russia, because he believed that
Mr. Grachev was corrupt and that the award was unwarranted in the
context of a civil war;
Whereas Lev Rokhlin was elected in 1995 to the Russian Duma as a member of the
``Russia Is Our Home'' party, the second largest party in the Duma;
Whereas Lev Rokhlin assumed the chairmanship of the defense committee of the
Duma and was the highest-ranking elected official in the Duma working on
defense issues;
Whereas during his tenure as chairman of the defense committee, Lev Rokhlin was
an outspoken critic of President Boris Yeltsin, stating that Yeltsin was
providing inadequate funding for the military and predicting that the
deterioration of the military would lead its members to become involved
in corrupt activity;
Whereas in July 1997, Lev Rokhlin established the Movement in Support of the
Army, Defense Industry, and Military Science to lobby for the welfare of
soldiers with families, for defense preparedness, and for adequate
funding of the defense industry;
Whereas in October 1997, Lev Rokhlin advocated the resignation of President
Yeltsin;
Whereas Lev Rokhlin was the first elected official of President Yeltsin's own
party to call for Yeltsin's impeachment;
Whereas attempts were made for 6 months to remove Lev Rokhlin from his committee
chairmanship;
Whereas on May 19, 1998, Lev Rokhlin was stripped of the chairmanship of the
defense committee, but maintained his position as a member of the Duma;
Whereas Lev Rokhlin became involved in an investigation of illegal arms sales
from Russia to Armenia and other Nations;
Whereas on July 3, 1998, Lev Rokhlin was shot in the head three times and
killed;
Whereas members of Lev Rokhlin's family have stated that Rokhlin's wife, Tamara
Pavlovna Rokhlina, was physically abused and was threatened with death
unless she accepted responsibility for Lev Rokhlin's murder;
Whereas Tamara Rokhlina was arrested for the murder of Lev Rokhlin and soon
after was seen in a physically battered condition by their daughter,
Yelena Rokhlina Abakumova;
Whereas the Interior Ministry issued a public statement that Tamara Rokhlina had
confessed to the murder of Lev Rokhlin;
Whereas Yelena Abakumova returned to her parents' home with a lawyer, examined
the physical evidence, and concluded that her mother could not possibly
have killed her father;
Whereas Lev Rokhlin's bodyguard, who was in the home the night of the murder,
claimed that he had heard no gunshots;
Whereas three recently dead bodies were found in the vicinity of the Rokhlin
household within days after the shooting;
Whereas the three bodies were cremated by the Moscow government authorities
before they could be identified;
Whereas many Russian citizens continue to challenge the notion that Lev Rokhlin
was murdered by his wife, and believe that the murder was ordered by Lev
Rokhlin's political opponents;
Whereas the United States has a significant interest in the transition of Russia
to a stable democratic system;
Whereas a key component of a stable democratic system is the rule of law and the
effectiveness of law enforcement; and
Whereas any inability of Russia to provide a full accounting of the
circumstances surrounding the death of Lev Rokhlin would raise serious
questions about the existence of a stable democratic system in Russia:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That--
(1) the House of Representatives expresses sympathy to the
family and colleagues of Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin; and
(2) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that
the President of the United States should urge the Russian
Government--
(A) to promptly and thoroughly investigate the
circumstances surrounding the death of Lev Yakovlevich
Rokhlin; and
(B) to provide a full accounting of the
circumstances as soon as practicable, but not later
than November 1999.
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