[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 98 (Monday, June 18, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H6610-H6612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  NOTING KILLINGS OF DOZENS OF INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS IN RUSSIA AND 
  CALLING ON RUSSIAN PRESIDENT TO AUTHORIZE COOPERATION WITH OUTSIDE 
                             INVESTIGATORS

  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the 
concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 151) noting the disturbing pattern 
of killings of dozens of independent journalists in Russia over the 
last decade, and calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to 
authorize cooperation with outside investigators in solving those 
murders, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
  The text of the concurrent resolution is as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 151

       Whereas Paul Klebnikov, the editor of the Russian version 
     of Forbes Magazine, who was investigating suspect business 
     dealings and corruption cases in Russia, was shot to death in 
     Moscow on July 9, 2004;
       Whereas Mr. Klebnikov's murder remains unsolved;
       Whereas Anna Politkovskaya, an acclaimed Russian journalist 
     and human rights activist who wrote numerous articles 
     critical of Russia's prosecution of the war in Chechnya, of 
     human rights abuses by the Russian government and of Russian 
     President Vladimir Putin was shot to death in Moscow on 
     October 7, 2006;
       Whereas Ms. Politkovskaya's murder remains unsolved;
       Whereas Ivan Safronov, a military affairs reporter for the 
     Russian newspaper ``Kommersant'' who wrote articles 
     criticizing the failure of Russian military programs and who 
     was planning to report on potential Russian arms sales to 
     Middle Eastern countries, including to state sponsors of 
     terrorism Iran and Syria, died in mysterious circumstances, 
     falling five stories from a window in the stairwell of his 
     apartment building in Moscow on March 2, 2007;
       Whereas, Russian prosecutors subsequently suggested that 
     Mr. Safronov may have committed suicide, although he left no 
     suicide note and the circumstances surrounding his death 
     raised unanswered questions;
       Whereas the cause of Mr. Safronov's death remains 
     undetermined;
       Whereas, according to Reporters Without Borders, twenty-one 
     reporters have been murdered in Russia since March 2000 and 
     many of those murders remain unsolved;
       Whereas, according to Reporters Without Borders, Russia was 
     one of the six most dangerous countries for journalists to 
     work in during 2006;
       Whereas a number of those reporters who were murdered had 
     reported on alleged corruption, malfeasance and other 
     controversies at the federal, provincial and local levels of 
     government in Russia;
       Whereas a number of those murdered had reported on alleged 
     human rights abuses by the Russian Government;
       Whereas a number of those murdered had reported on the 
     Russian government's conduct of the war in Chechnya, which 
     has involved numerous allegations of gross human rights 
     violations and corruption;
       Whereas, if journalists are killed or silenced through 
     undue pressure with impunity, a vibrant and participatory 
     civil society sector cannot emerge and democratic 
     developments are stalled; and
       Whereas, according to the President of the International 
     News Safety Institute, ``murder has become the easiest, 
     cheapest and most effective way of silencing troublesome 
     reporting, and the more the killers get away with it the more 
     the spiral of death is forced upwards'': Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring),  That Congress--
       (1) recalls the essential role that transparency and the 
     free flow of information play in creating and preserving 
     democratic institutions and civil society in any country;
       (2) recognizes the vital contribution made by independent 
     journalists in Russia in bringing transparency and a free 
     flow of information to readers after decades of Communist 
     censorship and repression;
       (3) notes the disturbing trend of murders of independent 
     journalists in Russia over the last decade;
       (4) encourages the President of the United States to 
     formally offer Russian President Vladimir Putin and other 
     officials of the Russian Government United States Government 
     law enforcement investigative assistance to help identify and 
     bring to justice those responsible for the many unsolved 
     murders of journalists in Russia during the past decade; and
       (5) urges President Putin to seek out competent, outside 
     law enforcement assistance in the investigation of the 
     unsolved murders of numerous independent journalists in 
     Russia.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Watson) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California.

[[Page H6611]]

                              {time}  1730


                             General Leave

  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution 
and yield myself as much time as I may consume.
  I would like to commend our distinguished colleague Mr. Chris Smith 
of New Jersey for introducing this important resolution that emphasizes 
the vital necessity of free speech in a democratic state. Often people 
consider freedom of speech as just icing on the cake of a society that 
treats its citizenry well. It's a nice touch but not the most essential 
component.
  But let me be clear, freedom of the press is not just a bourgeois 
middle class concern. It is not just an American concern. It is the 
essential component of democracy, as much as in Russia as anywhere 
else.
  Freedom of the press sharpens the tools of democracy and holds a 
government's feet to the fire. It is the only real way to inform the 
people about their own country and mobilizing them around crucial 
issues.
  Nowhere is this more important than in Russia, where nascent 
independent press formed in the early 1990s had suddenly dissipated 
under fear of government reprisal. It is no mistake that this decline 
has been accompanied by a simultaneous acquiescence of democratic 
opposition in the country.
  The threat to reporters writing about government decisions and 
engaging in investigative journalism is immediate and real. It has 
reached the point that journalists in Russia that dare to criticize the 
government are constantly looking over their shoulders in fear.
  According to Reporters Without Borders, 21 reporters have been 
murdered under mysterious circumstances since Putin took office in 
March of 2000. Almost all of those mysteries remain unsolved because 
the Putin government refuses to investigate fully and honestly.
  In the case that has led to perhaps the greatest outcry, Anna 
Politkovskaya was shot to death in the elevator bank of her apartment 
building in Moscow. She and her family had feared for her life ever 
since she emerged as an acclaimed journalist and human rights activist. 
She wrote numerous articles critical of Kremlin human rights abuses and 
misdeeds in Chechnya, and she paid the highest price for it.
  Paul Klebnikov, the editor of the Russian version of Forbes magazine, 
investigated suspect business dealings and was subsequently shot to 
death in Moscow.
  Ivan Safronov, a military affairs reporter who criticized the failure 
of Russian military programs, died in mysterious circumstances after 
falling five stories from a window in his apartment building.
  These three deaths, as well as the tragic loss of many of their brave 
colleagues, remain unresolved. It appears that the Russian government, 
which is led by a former KGB colonel, somehow no longer knows how to 
investigate such crimes. I find that awfully curious.
  We cannot allow this repression, this silencing of an independent 
media, to continue, especially in a country with a nascent democracy 
and starved for objective information.
  There was a fleeting moment in Russia in the early 1990s when an 
independent media flourished and new publications cropped up overnight. 
Now, the brave critical journalists who remain cower in fear.
  So I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, which highlights 
the disturbing trend of these suspicious deaths in Russia. It stresses 
the importance of a free flow of information to a democratic society, 
and praises the courageous men and women who seek to bring transparency 
to the Russian people after so many years of Communist secrecy.
  Finally, it calls on President Putin to seek outside help in 
investigating these unsolved crimes and on the United States Government 
to formally offer such assistance.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may 
consume.
  I rise in strong support of House Concurrent Resolution 151, 
introduced by my distinguished colleague from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).
  As the gentlewoman from California has pointed out, Mr. Speaker, this 
important resolution deals with a strange and quite troubling pattern 
of the killing of independent journalists in Russia over the past 
decade. We have different estimates, but one places the number of 
murdered reporters at 21 over the past 7 years, that estimate coming 
from the esteemed organization, Reporters Without Borders. Another 
estimate from the International News Safety Institute puts the number 
at close to 90 reporters killed in Russia over the past 11 years.
  Now what is truly strange is that most of these murders remain 
unsolved. Many of the murdered journalists have made it their personal 
cause to investigate corruption and the abuse of power at all levels of 
the Russian government.
  Perhaps many of our colleagues will recall how just a few weeks ago a 
brave Russian reporter was shot in the head on a street in Moscow. She 
had written articles criticizing the Russian government for its human 
rights abuses. Her murder remains unsolved.
  Perhaps our colleagues will recall the more recent death of a 
reporter who died in March of this year, as the gentlewoman pointed 
out, falling five stories from a window in the stairway of his 
apartment building. He was a military affairs reporter who had 
criticized the Russian Government in his articles, and he had been 
planning to publish a report on the arms sales of Russia to the state 
sponsors of terror, Iran and Syria.
  All of these seekers of truth did not deserve to die for their 
journalistic efforts. Bringing to justice the murderers of these 
reporters does deserve the strongest possible support of their 
government, their police, their prosecutors, and yet it appears to be 
strangely absent.
  Mr. Speaker, a free and democratic society requires freedom of the 
press, freedom of the media and respect for the safety of those who at 
times risk their lives to uncover the truth. Russia will not be a free 
and democratic society until that is the case in their country.
  We can and we should ask the Russian government to stand up in 
defense of its independent media and the safety of its reporters, but 
the unwillingness of the Russian government to solve so many of these 
murders and the successful efforts of the Kremlin to use state-owned or 
influenced companies to buy up and sensor the Russian media shows that 
our voices may be falling on willingly deaf ears.
  Nevertheless, that is what we should do. We should call on the 
Russian government to respect human rights and the rule of law by 
investigating these crimes with vigor and with sincerity. And that is 
the message, Mr. Speaker, of the resolution before us.
  This resolution also calls on our President to specifically offer our 
assistance to help the Russian government investigate those crimes.
  We should also ask the Russian president to seek out and accept 
competent outside law enforcement assistance to investigate these 
crimes, and this resolution calls for that.
  Mr. Speaker, it is critical that we recognize the tremendous 
contributions made by independent journalists in Russia, most 
especially those who suffer a bitter death as an unjust reward for 
their efforts. It is critical that we condemn in the strongest possible 
form the brutal murders of those who died trying to bring accurate and 
honest information to the Russian people about what is happening in 
their country.
  I urge my colleagues to support Mr. Smith's resolution to honor these 
intrepid reporters whose murders cry out for justice.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to

[[Page H6612]]

the author of this resolution, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Smith).
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for 
yielding, and I want to thank Ambassador Watson for being one of the 
cosponsors of this resolution, as well as all of those who join us 
today in making this collective statement to the Russians that there 
needs to be significant change, a reform, as to how they treat 
journalists.
  Mr. Speaker, today I rise in strong support of H. Con. Res. 151, a 
resolution which calls upon Russian President Putin to seek outside law 
enforcement assistance in investigating the unsolved murders of dozens 
of Russian journalists over the past decade. We also encourage 
President Bush to formally offer President Putin law enforcement 
assistance from the United States.
  Most observers think, Mr. Speaker, that some Russian officials have 
ordered or at least connived at these murders since most of the 
murdered journalists were investigating government corruption or 
involvement in human rights abuses. There is good reason to think that 
people in high places are still protecting the murderers.
  Mr. Speaker, Russia holds the second worst position in the world in 
the number of journalists killed in the last 10 years, according to the 
International News Safety Institute. Reporters Without Borders counts 
21 murdered journalists since March of 2000. This is a conservative 
number. It does not include the death under extremely suspicious 
circumstances of Ivan Safronov. It does include the murders of Paul 
Klebnikov and Anna Politkovskaya.
  Mr. Speaker, any Member can do this, do a Google search, put in 
Russian journalists and murders, and you come up with one headline 
after another and one news story after another, usually in the Western 
press, of individuals being killed.
  On June 15, there was a headline, ``Russian Journalist Attacked in 
Moscow''; May of 2005, ``Radio Journalist Badly Beaten Up''; April 21, 
``Russian Reporters Get Beaten Despite Wearing Special Jackets''; April 
20, ``Russian Activists Skeptical About Special Clothing For 
Journalists At Protests,'' they've got to wear special clothing, 
protective gear, to protect them from the police; April 9, ``Television 
Journalist Found Dead''; April 9, again, ``Critical Television 
Journalist Fears For His Life''; ``Photo Journalist Beaten, Injured'', 
on April 5; ``Journalist Assaulted During Demonstration''; and the list 
goes on and on and on. Sorry, Mr. Speaker, but I see a pattern, and I 
think other Members do as well.
  Let me just say a brief word about the three journalists that all 
three of us are mentioning today, also delineated in the resolution, 
whose deaths are sadly illustrative of so many others.
  Paul Klebnikov was the editor of the Russian edition of Forbes 
Magazine. In July 2004, he was shot to death in Moscow while 
investigating suspect business dealings and corruption cases.
  Anna Politkovskaya was an award-winning Russian journalist and human 
rights activist. She wrote many articles criticizing Russian atrocities 
committed during the war in Chechnya. In October 2006, she was shot to 
death in Moscow.
  Ivan Savronov reported for the Russian newspaper, Kommersant. He 
wrote articles criticizing the failure of Russian military programs and 
was planning to report on potential Russian arms sales to Iran and 
Syria, state sponsors of terrorism. In March of 2007, he died under 
suspicious circumstances, as has been recounted by both of my 
colleagues. He fell five stories from a window in the stairwell of his 
Moscow apartment building. That was no accident, Mr. Speaker. That was 
a murder.
  None of these cases have been solved, and very few of the less famous 
cases have been even looked at in a meaningful way.
  Many of my colleagues in this House have other concerns about human 
rights problems in Russia. Xenophobic violence continues throughout the 
Russian Federation.

                              {time}  1745

  People continue to disappear in Chechnya. Local officials still 
discriminate against non-Orthodox religion, and the rule of just law 
remains shaky. Of course we all care about these. But I would point out 
to you that a situation in which journalists can be killed with 
impunity is a human rights problem of a different order.
  It is a human rights problem that mitigates the resolution of other 
human rights problems. When journalists investigating a corruption case 
or a human rights abuse can be killed without their killers being 
brought to justice, or without a convincing effort being made to do so, 
this intimidates and has a chilling effect on other journalists. It 
marks off the borders of what others know they must not investigate.
  As a result, the Russian press cannot properly fulfill its function 
of holding officials to account. This is exactly what the killers 
intend.
  I raised this issue recently at a hearing of the Commission on 
Security and Cooperation in Europe. I was glad when Daniel Freed, 
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, 
acknowledged the nature of the problem and said, ``attacks on 
journalists, including the brutal and still unsolved murders of Paul 
Klebnikov and Anna Politkovskaya, among others, chill and deter the 
fourth estate.''
  Mr. Speaker, journalists fulfill an essential role in every society, 
and none more than those who uncover the theft of a country's assets by 
its elected officials or commit human rights outrages in its name. 
Journalists who do this at risk of their lives fully deserve to be 
called heroes. Make no mistake about it. These journalists knew what 
they were risking as they wrote and wrote and used the power of the pen 
to expose.
  We owe it to them to raise our voice to bring the killers to justice. 
Mr. Putin, sadly, does not seem to be making any serious efforts to do 
so. Unfortunately, we have the situation as it exists today in Russia.
  Only when journalists can work without fear of intimidation and death 
will we be able to say that we have a truly democratic Russian 
Government. Russian journalists, they are the watch dogs, just as they 
are in this country and every other country.
  Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great conscience of Russia, said in his 
Nobel Peace Prize speech in 1970, ``Any man who has once proclaimed 
violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his 
principle.''
  My resolution addresses the violence of the murder of independent 
journalists, and the lie in the claim that their murders have been 
seriously investigated. Solzhenitsyn said of Communist Russia, in our 
country, the lie has become not just a moral category, but a killer of 
the state. We have to ask ourselves and ask Mr. Putin, was this 
terrible statement also true of post-Communist Russia?
  I think we send a clear message today, and I hope Members in a 
bipartisan way will support this.
  Finally, I just want to thank Mark Milosch and Mark Gauge for their 
work in helping to put this resolution together.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson) that the House suspend the 
rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 151, as 
amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and 
nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will 
be postponed.

                          ____________________