[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 629 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 629

   Condemning the arbitrary arrest of United States citizens by the 
Government of the Russian Federation and calling for the immediate and 
                unconditional release of such citizens.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 8, 2024

Mr. Durbin (for himself, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Fetterman, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. 
   Blumenthal, Mr. Casey, Mr. Coons, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. King, Mrs. 
Murray, Ms. Cortez Masto, Ms. Stabenow, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Bennet, Mrs. 
 Shaheen, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Booker, Mr. Welch, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Wyden, 
and Ms. Warren) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
                 to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Condemning the arbitrary arrest of United States citizens by the 
Government of the Russian Federation and calling for the immediate and 
                unconditional release of such citizens.

Whereas the Government of the Russian Federation has arbitrarily and cruelly 
        arrested United States citizens under false pretenses in order to 
        extract bargaining leverage on unrelated matters;
Whereas the Russian Federation is a permanent member of the United Nations 
        Security Council;
Whereas, on March 29, 2023, the Government of the Russian Federation arrested 
        United States citizen and accredited Wall Street Journal reporter Evan 
        Gershkovich on fraudulent charges of espionage for his reporting on the 
        Russian economy;
Whereas Gershkovich has spent more than one year in pretrial detention in the 
        notorious Lefortovo prison in Moscow, including in isolation with 
        limited access to medical care and attorneys;
Whereas, even during the Cold War, the Soviet Union never held a journalist from 
        the United States for similar long-term detention, with the closest 
        parallel being the 1986 arrest and 13-day detainment of U.S. News and 
        World Report journalist Nicholas Daniloff;
Whereas the Department of State determined on April 10, 2023, that Gershkovich 
        has been wrongfully detained by the Government of the Russian 
        Federation;
Whereas, on December 28, 2018, the Government of the Russian Federation arrested 
        United States citizen Paul Whelan and later convicted him on June 15, 
        2020, on fraudulent espionage charges;
Whereas Whelan has spent nearly four years in various high-security jails and 
        labor camps in the Russian Federation, while enduring solitary 
        confinement, forced labor, and the denial of medical care;
Whereas the Department of State determined on April 10, 2023, that Whelan has 
        been wrongfully detained by the Government of the Russian Federation;
Whereas United States Ambassador to the Russian Federation Lynne Tracy publicly 
        stated on March 26, 2024, following Evan Gershkovich's court hearing, 
        ``Evan's case is not about evidence, due process, or rule of law. It is 
        about using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends, as the 
        Kremlin is doing in the case of Paul Whelan'';
Whereas, on June 2, 2023, the Government of the Russian Federation arrested 
        United States citizen and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist 
        Alsu Kurmasheva on politically motivated charges of working as a foreign 
        agent and ``spreading falsehoods about the Russian military,'' and who 
        now faces a prison sentence up to 15 years;
Whereas the Government of the Russian Federation has repeatedly denied consular 
        access, basic medical care, and ordered Kurmasheva to remain in pre-
        trial detention in prison conditions Kurmasheva described as 
        ``inhumane'';
Whereas, on August 14, 2021, the Government of the Russian Federation arrested 
        United States citizen and international schoolteacher Marc Fogel for 
        possession of medical marijuana prescribed by his physician, then 
        sentenced him on June 16, 2022, to an excessive 14-year sentence in a 
        Russian labor camp;
Whereas lawyers from the Russian Federation informed Fogel's family that the 
        typical sentence for the offense is five years of probation, and in 
        2019, the same Russian court sentenced a Russian defendant to eight 
        years in prison for the possession of 1,500 grams of various narcotics;
Whereas the Government of the Russian Federation sentenced Fogel to punishment 
        vastly disproportionate to the severity of his nonviolent crime, wildly 
        dissimilar to the typical punishments for comparable offenses in the 
        Russian Federation, and clearly motivated by ongoing political tensions 
        between the Russian Federation and the United States;
Whereas, on January 28, 2024, the Government of the Russian Federation arrested 
        United States citizen and amateur ballerina Ksenia Khavana on fraudulent 
        charges of high treason during a visit to the Russian Federation after 
        she donated $50 to a charity supporting humanitarian aid for Ukraine;
Whereas Khavana has been held in a high-security prison with no access to hot 
        water or heat during winter, and faces a 20-year sentence with limited 
        means of legal defense;
Whereas, on February 17, 2022, the Government of the Russian Federation arrested 
        Brittney Griner on trumped-up charges, kept her in detention for 
        approximately ten months, and eventually released her on December 8, 
        2022, in exchange for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout;
Whereas, on April 11, 2022, the Government of the Russian Federation arrested 
        United States permanent resident Vladimir Kara-Murza for criticizing 
        renewed invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and resulting 
        ongoing war and the criminality of the Government of the Russian 
        Federation, and sentenced Kara-Murza on April 17, 2023, to a 25-year 
        sentence for ``high treason'';
Whereas human rights groups in the Russian Federation estimate that the 
        Government of the Russian Federation holds nearly 20,000 political 
        prisoners in Russian jails, including, until his February 2024 death in 
        a Siberian gulag, opposition leader Alexei Navalny;
Whereas the Government of the Russian Federation has kidnapped more than 19,000 
        Ukrainian children and abducted them to the Russian Federation, 
        resulting in President Vladimir Putin being indicted by the 
        International Criminal Court for war crimes;
Whereas, under Vladimir Putin, Russian courts are neither independent nor fair 
        in the administration of justice and are entirely beholden to the 
        political whims of Putin;
Whereas the Government of the Russian Federation has refused to provide neither 
        minimal due process nor fair independent legal proceedings for United 
        States citizens Gershkovich, Whelan, Kurmasheva, Fogel, and Khavana;
Whereas the Department of State has called for the release of Gershkovich, 
        Whelan, Kurmasheva, Fogel, and Khavana;
Whereas the arrest and continued detention of Gershkovich, Whelan, Kurmasheva, 
        Fogel, and Khavana amount to hostage taking by the Government of the 
        Russian Federation: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) condemns--
                    (A) the arbitrary arrest and continued detention of 
                United States citizens Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, 
                Alsu Kurmasheva, Marc Fogel, and Ksenia Khavana, and 
                United States permanent resident Vladimir Kara-Murza by 
                the Government of the Russian Federation;
                    (B) the hostage taking of United States citizens by 
                a Permanent Member of the United Nations Security 
                Council; and
                    (C) the ongoing persecution, arrest, and political 
                imprisonment of ordinary Russian citizens and human 
                rights defenders who call for the end of the war in 
                Ukraine and demand freedom in the Russian Federation;
            (2) urges the Department of State to determine that Alsu 
        Kurmasheva, Marc Fogel, Ksenia Khavana, and Vladimir Kara-Murza 
        have been wrongfully detained by the Government of the Russian 
        Federation; and
            (3) calls on the immediate and unconditional release of 
        United States citizens Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, Alsu 
        Kurmasheva, Marc Fogel, and Ksenia Khavana, and United States 
        permanent resident Vladimir Kara-Murza.
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