[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 106 (Friday, July 29, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1666-E1667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     MR. LEONID NEVZLIN'S STATEMENT BEFORE THE HELSINKI COMMISSION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 28, 2005

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, some major news organizations have been 
reporting current developments in Russia, directed by the Kremlin, that 
clearly undermine democratic institutions in that country. The latest 
initiative, a measure just approved by the Upper House of Parliament, 
further consolidates political control in Vladimir Putin's party and 
reduces any opportunity for opposition parties in future elections. It 
also greatly limits outside groups from monitoring or observing vote 
tabulation and reporting in national elections.
  This week, my colleagues heard directly from a prominent ``victim'' 
of Mr. Putin's effort to purge political opposition. In an appearance 
before the Helsinki Commission, Mr. Leonid Nevzlin, who is a major 
share holder in the YUKOS Oil Company, discussed his situation and the 
political deterioration in Russia. When he visited Washington three 
years ago, Mr. Nevzlin was Deputy Chairman of the Upper House 
International Relations Committee, and advisor to the government on 
Middle East Policy, and head of the Russia Jewish Congress. Today, Mr. 
Nevzlin is forced to live in exile in Israel because he, like his long 
time associate and friend, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, dared to oppose the 
forces within the Kremlin.
  Mr. Speaker, Leonid Nevzlin's statement before the Helsinki 
Commission clearly states the current situation in Russia today. I ask 
that it be included in the Record at this point.

   Statement to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe 
                        ``Helsinki Commission''

                   (By Leonid Nevzlin, July 13, 2005)

       Mr. Chairman, I welcome the opportunity to appear before 
     the Helsinki Commission to discuss the current situation in 
     Russia and the concerns of all of us about the Putin 
     government and the future of Russia.
       First, I wish to emphasize the value of the Commission's 
     mandate and stated criteria to promote compliance with the 
     fundamental standards of civil society in Russia and the 
     other former Soviet republics.
       Second, those of us who have witnessed first-hand the 
     travesty of justice in Russia much appreciate the concerns 
     expressed by the co-chairmen about the improper handling of 
     the Yukos trial and the sentencing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky 
     and his colleagues by Russian authorities. Your formal 
     statement to the world's press that the ``case appears to the 
     world to be justice directed by politics'' and that the 
     ``selective prosecution such as appears to be the case here 
     will wreak havoc on Russia's legal system'' reflects that the 
     chairmen of this commission have an accurate view of the 
     Khodorkovsky trial and the weakened state of the legal system 
     in Russia.
       Third, it is vitally important that the Helsinki Commission 
     continue monitoring the implementation of the provisions of 
     the 1975 Helsinki Accords as they relate to Russia and report 
     its findings to the public. While the U.S. Administration and 
     Congressional leaders must necessarily balance many variables 
     in the bilateral relationship, the Helsinki Commission has a 
     clear mandate to insure that human rights and basic freedoms 
     are maintained in the countries under its jurisdiction.
       Mr. Chairman, it is my opinion that the rule of law is the 
     cornerstone of civil society because it serves to protect the 
     rights and freedoms of all citizens. What we have witnessed 
     this past year in Russia is a legal system that differs very 
     little from the Soviet days. The state prosecutor is an 
     instrument of the Kremlin and the judiciary is not truly 
     independent. When the finest lawyers in Russia cannot get a 
     fair and just trial for their clients when the whole world is 
     watching, no one in Russia can expect to obtain justice.
       The lives of many hundreds or even thousands of people have 
     been harmed forever as a result of the abuses of the Russian 
     government, which has violated basic human rights and its own 
     laws again and again. Many of those cases do not receive wide 
     attention, but some do, and human rights groups have begun to 
     document them. They are worthy of your attention and your 
     future labors.
       I am most familiar with the cases involving Yukos. Beyond 
     Mr. Khodorkovsky and myself, Alexei Pichugin, a mid-level 
     Yukos executive, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in 
     a secret murder trial conducted entirely behind closed doors. 
     Mr. Pichugin has been drugged, interrogated without his 
     lawyers present, kept from his wife and denied independent 
     medical treatment--even after he lost nearly 70 pounds while 
     in the custody of the FSB. My colleague, Platon Lebedev, who 
     is suffering from liver ailments and who was arrested in his 
     hospital bed, has also subsequently been denied independent 
     medical care. He was tried in the same cage with Mr. 
     Khodorkovsky in a show trial in which Russian and 
     international legal norms were repeatedly violated. He, like 
     Mr. Khodorkovsky, has now been sentenced to 9 years in 
     prison.
       The scope of the attack on those associated with Yukos has 
     been broad in scope and terrible in its tactics. For example, 
     Svetlana Bahkmina, a young Yukos lawyer, was arrested in 
     December. She has been interrogated by FSB or other Russian 
     officials to the point where her lawyers report that she has 
     lost consciousness. She has been isolated from her children, 
     ages 3 and 7. In the meantime, Russian government officials 
     have said that Ms. Bahkmina will be released when her boss, 
     Yukos' chief in-house lawyer, returns to Russia from England, 
     where he is effectively a political refugee.
       Other Yukos employees have had to flee Russia, too, and 
     have found refuge in the democracies of the world. In a stark 
     example of how the world now recognizes Russian ``justice'' 
     for what it is, the Bow Street Magistrate's Court in London 
     rejected a Russian extradition request for two such Yukos 
     employees charged in the anti-Yukos campaign. Having heard 
     all of the evidence, and noting President Putin's personal 
     involvement in the cases, the judge concluded that no Russian 
     court could be expected to withstand the Kremlin's political 
     pressure such that it could provide a fair trial to these 
     men. Subsequently, the British Home Office has given 
     political asylum to a half dozen additional Yukos 
     ``refugees.''
       Beyond Yukos, just recently, it was reported that Russian 
     prosecutors have opened a criminal case against former 
     Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. Mr. Kasyanov was 
     dismissed by Mr. Putin last year and has been critical of the 
     administration since then. He has specifically criticized the 
     handling of the Yukos case and has expressed his own higher 
     political aspirations. The Kasyanov case has all the earmarks 
     of another Yukos-style campaign, in which the powers of the 
     FSB and Russian federal prosecutors are misused by the 
     Kremlin to destroy a political opponent.
       The West, and particularly America, is rightfully concerned 
     by the Kremlin's co-opting of Russia's criminal justice 
     system as a tool to crush political opposition. The West is 
     further properly concerned because, in the Yukos case, the 
     Kremlin's campaign attacked what had become a model for 
     corporate governance and transparency.
       No one should doubt for a minute President Putin's motive 
     in the dismemberment of the Yukos Oil Company and the state 
     take-over of its major production unit. Energy is both very 
     profitable and, given that major industrial companies depend 
     on imports for their energy needs, inherently political. It 
     is the Kremlin's aim to control Russia's energy sector to 
     insure its dominant role in the world energy market. This 
     will most certainly enhance President Putin's standing 
     given that Europe and other countries become more 
     dependent on Russia as a major supplier. The respected 
     Count Lambsdorff of Germany warned last week that his 
     country was on a perilous course by increasing its 
     dependence on natural gas imports from Russia.
       On civil society, whatever progress was made in developing 
     democratic institutions during the Yeltsin years have all but 
     disappeared under the current regime. The major tenets of 
     democracy, as we know them, barely exist in Russia today. 
     While there may be a degree of freedom and liberty, the 
     institutions that protect those rights have been usurped by 
     forces within the Kremlin. The government now owns or 
     controls all media outlets, the courts are not truly 
     independent, there is no viable political opposition, and the 
     list goes on. It is increasingly apparent that former KGB and 
     FSB officers are now dominant in the Kremlin and whatever 
     transparency existed a few years ago is not in evidence 
     today. The result is an emerging form of corruption at the 
     highest levels in the Russian government. This corruption 
     threatens to corrode the foundation of the Russian government 
     to a degree that could put at risk Russian security and 
     stability as well as the long-term economic well-being of the 
     Russian people. I fear this will be Vladimir Putin's legacy.
       This current view of Russian authorities is not confined to 
     me or to opponents of the Kremlin. Valentin Gefter, the 
     Director of the Human Rights Institute in Moscow said to your 
     committee just a few short weeks ago that ``very often, 
     political, corporate and even personal reasons prevail over 
     the rule of law [in Russia].'' I absolutely agree. Michael 
     McFaul, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations 
     and executive director of the Council's Task Force on Russian 
     American Relations, headed by former U.S. Vice Presidential 
     nominees Jack Kemp and John Edwards, said that ``Four or five 
     years ago, there was a debate about whether Putin was a 
     democrat. The debate is now over. The question today concerns 
     the nature and extent of Putin's authoritarianism.'' Finally, 
     Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the Russian 
     government's handling of the Yukos case ``shook people's 
     confidence,'' and that Russian officials must demonstrate 
     that laws and regulations are fair and applied ``consistently 
     over time, applied over various cases.''
       It is not just Yukos that is under persecution by Russian 
     authorities. As reported by Irina Yasina, the head of the 
     Open Russia Foundation, a non-profit organization established 
     by Mr. Khodorkovsky, myself and our colleagues to promote a 
     democratic Russia, non-governmental organizations have been 
     under ``direct pressure and threats from the Ministry of 
     Interior Affairs, Public Prosecutor's Office and Federal 
     Security Services.'' This year, the Ministry of Justice has 
     suspended the activity of the Nijny Novgorod Society of Human 
     Rights and frozen the accounts of the Society of Russian-
     Chechen

[[Page E1667]]

     Friendship. The Kremlin has also thought to dismantle and put 
     pressure a number on of international civil society 
     organizations, including the Soros Foundation, the National 
     Democratic Institute & British Council.
       Mr. Chairman, I regret that Russia is moving in a direction 
     that is contrary to Western values and traditions. This must 
     be troubling to America as well. The question is what can 
     America and other Western democracies do about it. Obviously, 
     what does not work are casual refrains and diplomatic 
     overtures. Given that the hardened and cynical forces in the 
     Kremlin understand and respond only to sanctions that 
     threaten their own interests, I offer two thoughts:
       I applaud Senators McCain and Lieberman and Congressmen 
     Lantos and Cox for their sponsorship of the G-8 Resolution. 
     In examining the criteria for membership, it is clear Russia 
     meets neither the economic nor democratic requirements for a 
     seat at the
     G-8 table. Making clear that Russia's continued membership 
     depends on its adherence to democratic principles and the 
     rule of law will gain the attention of a leader who clearly 
     relishes his position in the G-8 Club. At least America and 
     other G-8 members should not allow Vladimir Putin to head the 
     group given the circumstances in Russia today.
       Russia aspires to be in the World Trade Organization for 
     understandable reasons. But is it possible that a major 
     country that uses extralegal means to seize control of 
     private assets, selective prosecution, businessmen, 
     renationalizes private enterprises, harasses companies with 
     bogus tax charges and fails to erect a legal system that 
     protects investments, shareholders and commercial contracts, 
     deserves membership in the WTO? Capital outflows and the 
     decline in investments are clearly due to perceptions inside 
     and outside Russia that it is not safe for investment. If 
     responsible nations ignore these trends and do not take 
     effective action to combat them, it will only encourage 
     Russian authorities to continue down the path of 
     authoritarianism.
       Finally, Mr. Chairman, I wish to make it clear I want to 
     see an open, uncorrupted, prosperous and free Russia. On my 
     last visit to Washington in June 2002, I was Deputy Chairman 
     of the Russia Federation's International Relations Committee, 
     president of the Russia Jewish Congress, a major shareholder 
     in Group Menatep, the holding company of YUKOS oil, and 
     heavily involved in education and philanthropic causes.
       Today I am a proud citizen of Israel, the country whose 
     democracy protects me from false accusations of undocumented 
     crimes by a prosecutor who is on a political witch hunt. My 
     sins, as viewed by the Kremlin, were to work with Mikhail 
     Khodorkovsky and Yukos to promote greater freedom, an open 
     civil society, business transparency and democratic values in 
     Russia to help the Russian people. This is a dark time for 
     those of us who cherish freedom and embrace democracy. If the 
     Russian people had a greater faith in democracy and 
     recognition of their power to demand it, there would be an 
     uprising in the country. But their experience is too limited. 
     Our only hope is that America, the author and inspiration of 
     democracy, will use its prestige to convince Mr. Putin to 
     change his ways.
       Again, I thank the Helsinki Commission for maintaining its 
     commitment to democratic values and willingness to confront 
     Russia and other nations whenever those values are put into 
     jeopardy.

                          ____________________