[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 95 (Thursday, July 20, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H6604]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      PERSECUTION AND HARASSMENT OF FREE PRESS IN RUSSIA MUST END

  (Mr. LANTOS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, as President Clinton makes his way to the G-
8 Summit in Japan, there is no more important item on the agenda than 
to tell Mr. Putin, the President of Russia, that the persecution and 
the harassment of the free press in Russia must come to an end.
  I have called to my colleagues' attention in the last few weeks the 
systematic harassment and persecution of the one remaining free media 
network in Russia. Yesterday this persecution was escalated to a new 
level when the Government authorities took steps to seize the personal 
property of Vladimir Gusinsky, the head of Media-Most which owns NTV 
Television Network, Echo of Moscow Radio, and other independent media 
ventures.
  Mr. Putin must understand that there is no room for Russia in the 
community of free and democratic nations, if he and his thugs are 
determined to destroy a free press. This harassment must come to an 
end, or relations between the free democracies of the world and the new 
totalitarian Russia will take a serious turn for the worse.

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