[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 8 (Thursday, January 12, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H398-H400]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RUSSIA AND PRESIDENT PUTIN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today as co-chair and
founding member of the Polish, Hungarian, and Ukrainian House Caucuses.
I am also a strong defender of NATO and of its purpose in linking the
free nations of Europe and the United States through this historic,
hard-won alliance and security treaty among Europe's sovereign nations
that respect the rule of law and our shared passion for liberty.
Our Nation and NATO's members paid the ultimate price in the last
century for our priceless gift of liberty. We won the cold war, and our
most treasured democratic values of life, liberty, freedom of assembly,
press, and religion are under siege today by a predatory and repressive
Russia. Go no further than any major business in your district and ask
them how many times they are hacked daily by Russian predators--to get
a sense of what is going on.
My purpose this morning is to remind our citizenry of the continuing
and major, real threat to our NATO alliance and to the destabilization
of Europe by Russia that necessitates our strengthening the alliance,
not weakening it, to ward off Vladimir Putin's expansionist dreams.
I must say I am concerned by our President-elect's loose talk about
Russia. His naive assumption that personal friendships with Russia's
oligarchs--some of whom are active members of Russia's notorious
mafia--can overcome strategic, expansionist imperatives that fill
Vladimir Putin's mind are truly not in America's interest.
So let's review some recent history.
Domestically, Mr. Putin has suppressed the basic freedoms of the
Russian people. His leadership has resulted in countless infringements
of human rights violations and other actions that directly conflict
with our foundational values in Western democracies.
Putin has an aggressive and very hostile foreign policy toward us--
toward the United States--and our top allies. Russia has invaded
neighboring sovereign countries, including the Republics of Georgia and
Ukraine. Russia has threatened and harassed U.S. military personnel and
diplomats overseas, not in the last century, now, orchestrating an
anti-American propaganda campaign--the largest since World War II--both
in our country and around the world; and it is conducting cyber
warfare, as I speak, against our country, our government, our
interests, as well as European governments; against political
institutes; against our think tanks; against our State voter data
systems, as our intelligence services have just informed us; and
against our cities and counties, journalists, and individuals.
[[Page H399]]
Information about Putin's aggressive behavior is well-documented and
is specifically highlighted in the intelligence briefings that our
President-elect began to receive when he secured the Republican Party
nomination last year. Despite this, throughout his campaign and as
President-elect, Mr. Trump continues to praise and support Putin. He
has even taken the foreign dictator's side over those of the leaders of
our country he was elected to represent.
Here are examples:
December 18, 2015: During an interview on ``Morning Joe,'' host Joe
Scarborough asked Mr. Trump about Putin's alleged killing of
journalists and political opponents. Trump answered: ``He's running his
country, and at least he's a leader. Unlike what we have in this
country.''
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a list of dozens of journalists
in Russia who have been murdered in cold blood because they were
reporting on corruption, on growing repression in that society--on what
Russia was executing around the world.
A Partial List of Journalists Who Have Died in Repressive Russia
1. July 16, 2000: Igor Domnikov, an editor and reporter for
the independent Novaya Gazeta who covered local government
corruption, died after being attacked. His assailants are
serving prison terms but the ex-government official who:
orchestrated the attack was not convicted.
2. July 26, 2000: Sergey Novikov, the owner of the
independent radio station Vesna, was shot in his apartment.
Novikov was a vocal critic of local government corruption and
received death threats prior to his murder. The case remains
unsolved.
3. Sept. 21, 2000: Radio Liberty correspondent Iskandar
Khatloni died from an attack by an unknown assailant.
Khatloni, who was also a poet and former BBC correspondent,
was covering human rights abuses in Chechnya. The case
remains unsolved.
4. Oct. 3, 2000: Sergey Ivanov, the director of the
independent and influential TV station Lada, was shot in his
apartment. The case remains unsolved.
5. Nov. 21, 2000: Cameraman Adam Tepsurgayev, who shot most
of Reuters' footage from the second Chechen conflict, was
shot dead in a Chechen village. The Russian government
contends that Chechen guerrillas murdered Tepsurgayev, but
local residents were doubtful. The case remains unsolved.
6. Feb. 3, 2001: Photographer Valery Kondalkov was killed
after the publication of photos he took of the private
mansions of urban elite in the city of Armavir. The case
remains unsolved.
7. Sept. 18, 2001: Eduard Markevich, the editor and
publisher of a local newspaper, was shot in the back after
receiving threats and surviving a previous attack. Markevich
frequently wrote about local corruption and die suspected
perpetrators of his murder are government officials. The case
remains unsolved.
8. March 9, 2002: Natalya Skryl, a local business reporter,
died from an attack. She was planning to publish an article
on the struggle for the control of a local metal plant. The
case remains unsolved.
9. April 29, 2002: Valery Ivanov, editor of the independent
newspaper Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye, was shot eight times in
the head. His newspaper is known for his coverage of local
organized crime, drug trafficking and corruption. The case
remains unsolved.
10. April 18, 2003: Dmitry Shvets, the deputy director of
the independent television station TV-21, known for his
critical reporting on politicians, was shot dead outside the
station's offices. He had been investigating a mayoral
candidate's links to organized crime. The case remains
unsolved.
11. July 3, 2003: Novaya Gazeta deputy editor Yuri
Shchekochikhin died from an acute allergic reaction while
those close to him believe he was poisoned. Shchekochikhin
was working on a corruption case involving high-ranking
government officials and had received threats. The government
has not opened an investigation and says there's no evidence
of foul play.
12. July 3, 2003: Local television reporter Alikhan Guliyev
was shot in his apartment building. Guliyev had accused an
influential politician of campaign violations, and had
survived an attempt on his life in 2002. The case remains
unsolved.
13. Oct 9, 2003: A year after the murder of his predecessor
Valery Ivanov, Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye editor Aleksei
Sidorov was stabbed by two unknown assailants after receiving
threats. Officials initially agreed he was murdered in
retaliation for his investigative work, but the case remains
unsolved.
14. July 9, 2004: Forbes Russia founding editor Paul
Klebnikov was shot in Moscow in a contract killing. The
magazine had recently published a feature on Russia's richest
people, and Klebnikov himself had written books and articles
about business, crime and corruption in Russia. A decade
after his death, the case remains unsolved, prompting
Secretary of State John Kerry to urge Russia to bring the
perpetrators to justice.
15. May 21, 2005: Cameraman Pavel Makeev, while reporting
on illegal drag racing, was found dead on the side of a road.
Though his death was initially classified as a traffic
accident, Makeev's colleagues say his death was related to
his work. The case has been reopened but remains unsolved.
16. June 28, 2005: Magomedzagid Varisov, who wrote critical
political columns for the weekly Novoye Delo, was shot in his
car by unknown assailants with machine guns in Dagestan.
Varisov had received numerous threats through years. Three
suspects were killed in October 2005, and the unsolved case
was closed.
17. Jan. 8, 2006: Reporter Vagif Kochetkov, who wrote for
the newspapers Trud and Tulskii Molodoi Kommunar, died from
an attack. Officials labeled his death the result of a
robbery, though only work-related documents and his cellphone
were taken, while his wallet and fur coat were not. A local
businessman was charged with the attack but later said he was
coerced into confessing.
18. Oct. 7, 2006: Renowned journalist and human rights
activist Anna Politkovskaya was shot in her apartment after
receiving, and narrowingly escaping, numerous death threats.
The five men hired to kill her were convicted and sentenced
seven years later, but whoever ordered the murder (believed
to be $150,000 contract) remains unknown.
19. Nov. 30, 2006: Prominent investigative journalist
Maksim Maksimov was declared dead. He disappeared two years
earlier while investigating local corruption in St.
Petersburg as well as several unsolved murders. The case
remains unsolved.
20. March 2, 2007: Defense correspondent Ivan Safronov died
from mysteriously falling from a fifth-floor window while
investigating the sale of Russian arms to Syria and Iran.
Safronov embarrassed military officials with reports on
problems with Russia's nuclear program. His death has been
officially ruled a suicide, but his colleagues and friends
say he had no reason to kill himself.
21. Aug. 31, 2008: Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the
independent news site Ingushetia, was shot while in police
custody. Officials had been attempting to close down
Ingushetia for extremism; the site had covered corruption,
human rights abuses, unsolved murders, and voting fraud in
the 2008 presidential election. Yevloyev was detained as a
witness in investigation of a local explosion, and police say
the shooting was an accident.
22. Sept. 2, 2008: Television editor Telman (Abdulla)
Alishayev was shot by unknown assailants in Dagestan.
Alishayev produced an anti-radical Islam documentary two
years earlier and received death threats from radical groups.
23. Jan. 19, 2009: Anastasia Baburova, a freelancer for the
opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was shot by
ultranationalists in a double murder. Baburova had covered
the rise of neo-Nazism and race-motivated crimes in Moscow.
Her murderers, members of a neo-Nazi group, have been
sentenced.
24. March 30, 2009: Layout designer Sergei Protazanov died
after an attack by unknown assailants. Protazanov was part of
the editorial staff of Grazhdanskoe sogalsie, a newspaper
known for its critical coverage of the ruling party of
Russia. The case remains unsolved.
25. July 15, 2009: The fifth Novaya Gazeta journalist
murdered since 2000, Natalya Estemirova was kidnapped and
shot execution-style in Chechnya. Her colleagues believe that
Chechen officials ordered the Kremlin-backed assassination,
as Estemirova had reported on human rights violations
committed by authorities in the region. The official
investigation pinned the murder on a Chechen rebel who was
killed by an air strike, but her colleagues and human rights
activists believe this is a cover-up.
26. Aug. 11, 2009: Abdulmalik Akhmedilov, an editor for the
independent news website Hakikat and editor-in-chief of the
political monthly Sogratl, was shot in his car in Dagestan.
Akhmedilov was critical of government efforts to curb
religious and political freedom and inaction in investigating
assassinations. The case remains unsolved.
27. Dec. 15, 2011: Independent newspaper founder
Gadzhimurad Kamalov was shot outside his office in Dagestan.
His newspaper Chernovik was known for its investigations in
government corruption, police abuse and Islamic extremism,
and his name appeared on an anonymous hit list.
28. Dec. 5, 2012: News anchor Kazbek Gekkiyev, who covered
social issues, was shot in the head while returning home from
work. Several reporters at his state-controlled station,
VGTRK, had received threats allegedly from Islamist
separatist fighters.
29. April 8, 2013: Mikhail Beketov, founding editor of the
Khimiki, died after a 2008 attack by unknown assailants that
left him severely brain-damaged, amputated and unable to
speak. Beketov had covered government corruption and the
planned destruction of the Khimki forest to make way for a
planned toll road. In retaliation for his reporting, his car
had been set on fire and his dog left dead on his doorstep.
He never fully recovered from the attack and died five years
later in the hospital.
30. May 18, 2013: Nikolai Potapov, a former government
official and founding editor of the local Selsovet newspaper,
was shot in the Stavropol region. Selsovet was known for its
coverage of government corruption.
31. July 9, 2013: Akhmednabi Akhmednabiye, deputy editor of
the independent newspaper Novoye Delo, was shot
[[Page H400]]
dead outside his house in Dagestan. He covered government
corruption, abductions, police abuse and torture and had
received numerous threats for his work. His name appeared on
an anonymous hit list.
32. Dec. 4, 2013: Arkady Lander, editor of the opposition
newspaper Mestnaya, died after an 2010 attack by unknown
assailants in Sochi. He underwent operations and
hospitalizations for three years after his attack, which left
him amputated and with a fractured skull. Lander had covered
local elections and distributed his newspaper free of charge.
The statute of limitations ran out on his case.
33. Aug. 1, 2014: The body of independent journalist and
civil activist Timur Kuashev was discovered in the woods
after he disappeared a day earlier. Kuashev was threatened by
police after reporting on civil liberty and human rights
violations by security forces
Ms. KAPTUR. The interview with Mr. Scarborough took place the day
after Mr. Putin praised and propagandized Mr. Trump as ``bright and
talented'' and the ``absolute leader of the Presidential race.'' That
was about a year before our election. Months later, the President-elect
asked the Russian Federation to hack Hillary Clinton's email. How about
that by our President-elect?
September 8, 2016: At NBC's Commander-in-Chief Forum, Mr. Trump
praised Putin by saying:
If Putin says great things about me, I'm going to say great
things about him . . . I've already said he is very much of a
leader. The man has very strong control over his country.
He is right about that. If you speak against Putin, you can be
murdered in Russia.
America, pay attention.
____________________