[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 130 (Thursday, September 10, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6601-S6602]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING BORIS NEMTSOV

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, last night I was honored to pay tribute to 
a dear friend and personal hero, the late Boris Nemtsov. Boris Nemtsov 
was the Russian opposition leader, former Deputy Prime Minister, and 
human rights activist who was murdered in February.
  I ask unanimous consent to have my remarks printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

       Ladies and gentlemen, it's a wonderful privilege to 
     introduce a personal hero--whose courage, selflessness and 
     idealism I find awe-inspiring--and ask him to accept an award 
     on behalf of another personal hero, a man of very great 
     courage and selflessness and idealism, Boris Nemtsov.
       Vladimir Kara-Murza is deputy leader and co-founder with 
     Boris of the People's Freedom Party. He is the leading 
     coordinator of Open Russia. In the U.S., Vladimir was a 
     prominent and very effective advocate for

[[Page S6602]]

     passage of the Magnitsky Act, which President Obama signed 
     into last December.
       Most recently, he has eloquently and persuasively 
     campaigned to expand the act to impose sanctions on those 
     Russian journalists, who are so cowed and corrupted by the 
     Kremlin, they have become indispensable to propagating the 
     lies and atmosphere of hate, fear and violence the regime 
     relies on to maintain power.
       Vladimir is a brave, outspoken, and relentless advocate for 
     freedom and democracy in Russia. All of his adult life and 
     even as a boy, he has been a steadfast champion for the rule 
     of law, for justice, for truth, for the dignity of the 
     Russian people. And like others in Russia who place the 
     interests of the Russian people before their own self-
     interest, he has paid a price for his gallantry and 
     integrity.
       In May of this year, he grew very ill and fell into a coma. 
     As has happened to other Putin critics, Vladimir was poisoned 
     in order to intimidate him or worse. His family brought him 
     to the U.S. for treatment this summer, and we are all very 
     relieved and grateful that he is recovering, and able to be 
     with us tonight.
       Vladimir, you are an inspiration to the work of this 
     Institute, and to me personally. Your work is crucial to the 
     progress of freedom and justice in the world. You're a credit 
     to your family and your country. You've kept faith with your 
     ideals in confrontation with a cruel and dangerous autocracy.
       And you have kept faith--honorably and bravely--with the 
     example of your friend and comrade, Boris Nemtsov, who died a 
     martyr for the rights of people who were taught to hate him 
     but who will one day mourn his death, revere his memory, and 
     despise his murderers.
       Boris Nemtsov is a hero of the Russian Federation. He 
     doesn't need a posthumous Gold Star to deserve that 
     distinction. What worth is a decoration from the hands of a 
     tyrant and the sycophants and crooks who surround him? What 
     meaning would it have? He is beyond the calumnies and scorn 
     and cruelty of his enemies now. Freedom salutes Boris. 
     Justice proclaims him a hero. The truth reveres his memory.
       Putin could never understand Boris. He could never 
     appreciate how someone could be impervious to threats and 
     slander, to the lure of corruption and the oppression of 
     fear. A man like Putin, who all his life has stood on the 
     wrong side of history, on the wrong side of morality, of 
     goodness, can't comprehend the power of righteousness. He is 
     blind to the supremacy of love. He can't see that all lies 
     are exposed eventually, hate is overcome by love, illicit 
     power decays, while the truth endures forever.
       The people who killed Boris and the regime that protects 
     them are the enemies of the Russian people. They rob Russia 
     of its wealth, its hopes, its future. They deny the God-given 
     dignity of the people they misrule. They are thieves and 
     murderers. And they are cowards. They fear justice. They fear 
     truth. They fear a society in which ideals and morality are 
     the foundation of law and order.
       Boris wasn't afraid. He knew his enemies. He knew what they 
     were capable of, but he would not be oppressed. He would not 
     be oppressed by unjust laws or by violence and fear. He was a 
     free man, and bravely so. He was accustomed to danger. But he 
     lived for love and justice and truth. He had been threatened 
     repeatedly and demonized by the regime's propaganda 
     apparatus. Yet when his enemies took his life in the shadow 
     of the Kremlin, they found him walking in the open air, 
     enjoying the evening, unafraid.
       It was an honor to know him, and among the greatest 
     privileges of my life to call him a friend.
       For his courage, for giving the last full measure of 
     devotion to his country and his countrymen, IRI awards the 
     2015 Freedom Award to the late Boris Nemtsov. May we long 
     find inspiration in his example. May we take renewed devotion 
     to the cause he died to advance. And may we, too, live 
     unafraid in the open air, for love and justice and truth.
       Thank you.

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