[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 536 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 536

 Expressing the sense of the Senate that President Vladimir Putin is a 
                             war criminal.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 7, 2022

   Mr. Cassidy (for himself and Ms. Hassan) submitted the following 
  resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate that President Vladimir Putin is a 
                             war criminal.

Whereas, under international law, a war crime is a serious violation of the laws 
        or customs of war as defined by international customary law and 
        international treaties;
Whereas war crimes also include initiating a war of aggression as prosecuted at 
        the Nuremberg trials following World War II and more recently defined in 
        the 2010 amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal 
        Court;
Whereas a war criminal is a person who has planned, ordered, or carried out an 
        act during the conduct of a war that violates accepted international 
        rules of war; and
Whereas Articles 26 and 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, done 
        at Vienna May 23, 1969, state, ``Every treaty in force is binding upon 
        the parties to it and must be performed by them in good faith. . . . A 
        party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification 
        for its failure to perform a treaty.'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation has 
        committed war crimes as defined by the United Nations, the 
        International Criminal Court, and other international bodies 
        by--
                    (A) initiating an unprovoked war;
                    (B) violating the sovereignty of Ukraine 
                repeatedly;
                    (C) targeting civilian infrastructure, including 
                hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings, 
                militarily;
                    (D) targeting government facilities unrelated to 
                legitimate military objectives; and
                    (E) attempting to overthrow the democratically 
                elected government led by President Volodymyr Zelensky; 
                and
            (2) since President Vladimir Putin is the Commander in 
        Chief (equivalent) of the Armed Forces of the Russian 
        Federation and as such was involved in the planning of the 
        invasion of Ukraine, he is culpable of launching a war of 
        aggression and the systematic commission of war crimes during 
        that war by Russian troops.
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