[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 186 (Tuesday, November 14, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H9185-H9187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PAYING TRIBUTE TO AMINA OKUYEVA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a freedom 
fighter, a beloved mother of her embattled country, Ukraine, Amina 
Okuyeva.
  Amina Okuyeva was killed on October 30 in a cowardly act. Hitmen 
fired on Amina and her husband, Adam Osmayev, from behind bushes as 
they drove by. Amina was struck in the head. The world lost a brave and 
beautiful soul, but her loss will not be in vain.
  Born in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa, Amina was a mother, a 
medical surgeon, a Ukrainian police lieutenant, and a Muslim activist 
known for her stance on equal rights for men and women in uniform.
  She was a born leader. At the start of the Euromaidan movement, Amina 
joined the peaceful protest in Ukraine in the bitter cold, a protest 
against repression. To show solidarity, she lived with her husband on 
the streets in a tent.
  When Russia illegally invaded Crimea in eastern Ukraine, Amina was 
the first woman to join the Kyiv-2 volunteer battalion. She was awarded 
the Hero of Ukraine Medal to honor her bravery at the battle of 
Debatsevo in the grizzly fight against Russian aggression.
  She fought valiantly towards progress and against oppression. Her 
bravery symbolizes the extraordinary strength of Ukrainian women as the 
fountainhead of that society, holding the country together during 
significant duress.
  With her assassination, the world has yet again witnessed how the 
enemy of democracy will stop at nothing to silence those who stand for 
freedom and justice. Amina had been a target before due to her 
unyielding patriotism. A failed attempt occurred in June when an 
assassin, pretending to be a journalist, shot at her. Tragically, evil 
persisted, and on Monday, October 30, it succeeded in snuffing out the 
beauty of Amina and wounded her husband, but her spirit endures larger 
than life itself.
  Amina is one of many fallen victims to Russia's illegal invasion of 
Ukraine and its clandestine efforts to snuff out championships of 
freedom. The list includes Nikolai Andrushchenko, Nikolai Volkov, Denis 
Voronenkov, and numerous other valiant souls who placed their lives 
forward in liberty's struggle.
  I include in the Record an extensive list of lives purged by Kremlin-
related assassinations.

           List of Kremlin-Related Assassinations or Attacks

       ``Two common causes of death for contemporary Russians are 
     heart attacks and falling to one's end from great heights. In 
     some cases, these fatal events actually even have something 
     to do with high cholesterol or tragic mishaps.``--journalist 
     Michael Weiss, Daily Beast


                                  2017

       April 19--Nikolai Andrushchenko, a 73-year-old Russian 
     journalist who openly criticized President Vladimir Putin's 
     administration died just over a month after he was attacked 
     and beaten by unknown aggressors. The Novy Peterburg founder 
     died in a St. Petersburg hospital from injuries attributed 
     the 9 March 2017 attack. Andrushchenko, a former St. 
     Petersburg city council member, was placed in a medical coma 
     after suffering major blunt trauma to his head, but never 
     recovered.
       March 27--Nikolai Volkov, head of the Russian Interior 
     Ministry's construction department was shot dead in Moscow in 
     a residential neighborhood near his home at 10.30pm. A man 
     was seen grabbing Vokov's bag and then shooting him before 
     fleeing. Police, who stated that the body was riddled with 
     bullets, also stated that they believed the motive to be 
     robbery, further suggesting that they did not ``believe'' 
     that the killing ``was directly related'' to Volkov's job.
       March 23--Denis Voronenkov, 45, Russian politician who fled 
     to Ukraine gunned down outside hotel in Kyiv.
       March 21--Nikolai Gorokhov, 53, was thrown/pushed head 
     first from fourth story window. Russian security services 
     claim, ``he fell'' trying to move a bathtub that was being 
     lifted over a balcony. Experts have replied that when people 
     ``fall'' from a balcony accidentally, it is almost never 
     headfirst. Unidentified workers were on the balcony. Gorokhov 
     represented Sergei Magnitsky, a fellow Russian lawyer who 
     exposed Russia's largest ever tax fraud. Gorokhov was set to 
     testify in Moscow against investigator in Magnitsky case. He 
     was also consultant for Preet Bharara's anti-Russian mob case 
     in New York. He remains in intensive care, in a coma, with 
     severe head injuries.
       March 16--Yevgeny Khamaganov, 35, died in Buryatia from 
     injuries (blunt force head trauma) suffered from when he was 
     attacked on March 10 after reporting on corruption in 
     Siberia.
       March 2--Alex Oronov, 69, died of unexplained 
     circumstances, apparently a heart attack. His daughter is 
     married to brother of Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime 
     ``consigliere.'' Ukrainian parliamentarian Andrii Artemenko 
     asked Oronov to set up a meeting in late January with Michael 
     Cohen, where they were joined by former Trump Organization 
     employee Felix Sater, a known mobster and supposed FBI 
     informant. Oronov/Artemenko presented Mr. Cohen with a peace 
     plan for settling territorial disputes between Russia and 
     Ukraine, giving full control of Crimea to Putin, as well as 
     allegedly

[[Page H9186]]

     compromising information on Petro Poroshenko, that they hoped 
     would force Poroshenko's resignation. Mr. Cohen took their 
     plan and their compromising information and forwarded to 
     then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
       February 20--Amb. Vitaly Churkin, 64, Russia's ambassador 
     to the United Nations, died of an apparent heart attack; 
     autopsy proved inconclusive.
       February 2--Journalist and opposition politician Vladimir 
     Kara Murza became violently ill and temporarily paralyzed for 
     2nd time in less than two years due to poisoning. VKM father, 
     in an apparent effort to save his son from Russian 
     authorities, continues to deny that he was poisoned. However, 
     VKM and VKM wife state that it was purposefully effort to 
     poison. VKM wife stated that in 2015 after murder of Nemtsov, 
     a VKM colleague, Russian special services did not want to 
     outright kill her husband with the first poisoning did not 
     want to kill him, only ``frighten him and destroy him slowly 
     with illness.'' However, now they believe they did want to 
     kill him and effort failed since VKM was taken to doctor 
     immediately after showing symptoms. VKM left Russia on Feb. 
     19 and is now in the U.S. Recently testified at a 
     congressional hearing on the Russian opposition.
       January 26--Amb. Alexander Kadakin, 67, Russian envoy to 
     India, died after a short illness. There was nothing 
     ``special or extraordinary'' about the circumstances that led 
     to his death said his assistant.
       January 25--Russian newspaper Kommersant reported the 
     arrests of three men: Sergei Mikhailov, who heads the Center 
     for Information Security, an arm of the Russian intelligence 
     agency FSB; and Ruslan Stoyanov, a senior researcher with 
     Kaspersky Lab, the computer security company. Both men were 
     last seen the first week of December when in a Stalin-style 
     touch, a bag was suddenly thrown over Mikhailov's head during 
     a meeting of fellow intelligence officers, and he was dragged 
     out. Mikhailov has not been seen since. And is now almost 
     certainly dead. Sergei Mikhailo was believed to have been a 
     U.S. intelligence asset within the Russian government. The 
     third arrest was of Dmitry Dokuchayev, a hacker known by the 
     name ``Forb.''
       January 9--Amb. Andrey Malanin, 54, Russian envoy in 
     Greece, was found dead in his apartment in Athens on bedroom 
     floor. Greek police stated that ``at first sight'' it appears 
     he died suddenly from natural causes. No autopsy was 
     performed, although that is standard procedure when a 
     diplomat dies.


                                  2016

       December 26--Oleg Erovinkin, 61, Russian intelligence 
     official found dead in the backseat of his car parked on the 
     streets of Moscow. Russian government agencies have not 
     released an official cause of death. He was a former general 
     in the FSB and served as chief-of-staff to Igor Sechin, the 
     president of state-owned oil giant Rosneft. Russia watchers 
     have speculated that he might have been a source of 
     information in the 35-page dossier that detailed alleged 
     links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
       December 20--Amb. Andrey Karlov, 62, Russian ambassador to 
     Turkey, fatally shot in the back in Ankara. The shooter, a 
     Turkish police officer, shouted ``do not forget Syria'' 
     during the assassination.
       December 20--Petr Polshikov, 56, a senior Russian diplomat, 
     was shot to death in his Moscow home, Polshikov's wife came 
     home and found him in their bedroom with a pillow over his 
     face. Underneath the pillow, police found Polshikov with a 
     head wound. Russian Foreign Ministry said Polshikov's death 
     was likely an accident and had nothing to do with his 
     official government duties.
       November 8--Sergei Krivov, 63, Russian official in NYC dies 
     on U.S. Election Day. Kirvov worked for the FSB, his cover in 
     the U.S. at the Russian consulate was ``security guard.'' On 
     November 8, NYC police received a 911 call from the Russian 
     consulate. Emergency responders declared him dead at the 
     scene. Krivovhad served in the consulate as duty commander 
     involved with security affairs. Russian consular officials 
     first said Krivov fell from the roof. Then, they said he died 
     of a heart attack. The initial police report filed on the day 
     of the incident said Krivov was found ``with an unknown 
     trauma to the head.'' After conducting an autopsy, New York 
     City Medical Examiner ruled that Krivov died from bleeding in 
     the chest area.
       August--The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced that 
     Russian runner Yulia Stepanova's online doping management 
     account had been illegally accessed. The doping scandal, for 
     which she blew off the lid, rocked sport and cost over 100 
     Russians their place at the Rio Games. The Russian runner 
     says she fears for her life and has been forced to move after 
     hackers tried to find her location. Stepanova has been in 
     hiding in the United States with her husband Vitaly, a former 
     Russian anti-doping official, after giving evidence that the 
     Russian government for years facilitated widespread cheating 
     across nearly all Olympic sports.
       July--Interfax news agency reported that Aleksandr Poteyev, 
     64, an intelligence officer accused of defecting and 
     betraying a ring of Russian spies living undercover in 
     American suburbs, had died in the United States. However, the 
     U.S. has not confirmed these reports. Poteyev exposed Anna 
     Chapman and gang of 10, after defecting and entered 
     witness protection.
       February 14--Nikita Kamaev, 52, a former executive director 
     of the Russian anti-doping agency died suddenly apparently of 
     a heart attack according to TASS. He planned to write a book 
     on drug use in sports Britain's Sunday Times newspaper 
     reported.
       February 3--Vyacheslav Sinev, 52, a former general 
     director, Russian anti-doping agency died suddenly. Official 
     cause of death was never released.
       January 14--Grigory Rodchenkov, 58, the director who ran 
     the laboratory that handled testing for thousands of Russian 
     Olympians and who developed a three-drug cocktail of banned 
     substances that he mixed with liquor and provided to dozens 
     of Russian athletes, helping to facilitate one of the most 
     elaborate--and successful--doping ploys in sports history, 
     fled to the U.S., seeking asylum and protective custody. 
     Within the next month, two of his colleagues died.
       January 4--Col. Gen. Igor Sergun, 59, the head of the GRU 
     (Russia's military intelligence directorate), who has long 
     done secretive dirty work at the order of the Kremlin in the 
     war against Ukraine died suddenly. No information provided as 
     to cause of death.


                                  2015

       December 27--Major General Aleksandr Shushukin, 52, deputy 
     chief of staff of the Russian paratrooper forces and who led 
     the Russian military invasion in Crimea died suddenly. Blood 
     clots to the heart, Kremlin announced.
       November 5--Mikhail Lesin, 57, found dead in his Dupont 
     Circle hotel room in Washington DC. A year later, in October 
     2016, the Washington DC medical examiner's office confirmed 
     that former Russian press minister died of ``blunt force 
     trauma to the head'' and also suffered injuries to his neck, 
     torso, arms and legs caused by falls, however determined the 
     cause of death to be accidental due to extreme inebriation. 
     Lesin founded the television network Russia Today (RT). The 
     Daily Beast reports that before his death, Lesin was 
     considering making a deal with the FBI to protect himself 
     from corruption charges. Lesin had been at the heart of 
     political life in Russia and would have known a lot about the 
     inner workings of the rich and powerful.
       May--Vladimir Kara Marza, opposition journalist, deputy of 
     Open Russia poisoned for the first time.
       February--Boris Nemtsov--just hours after urging the public 
     to join a march against Russia's military involvement in 
     Ukraine, Nemtsov was shot four times in the back by an 
     unknown assailant within view of the Kremlin. Putin took 
     ``personal control'' of the investigation into Nemtsov's 
     murder, but the killer remains at large.


                                  2013

       March 23--Billionaire Boris Berezovsky, instrumental in 
     Putin's rise to power, had a falling out with Putin which led 
     to his self-exile in the United Kingdom, where he vowed to 
     bring down the president. Berezovsky was found dead inside a 
     locked bathroom at his home in the United Kingdom, a noose 
     around his neck, in what was at first deemed a suicide. 
     However, the coroner's office could not determine the cause 
     of death.


                                  2012

       Alexander Perepilichny, 44, a former member of the Klyuev 
     Group, dropped dead while jogging in his adoptive home of 
     Surrey, England. There was no cause of death stated, but the 
     assumption by the British coroner's initial finding was that 
     nothing looked suspicious, even though Perepilichny was a 
     healthy 44-year-old with no known chronic or debilitating 
     ailments. Then Monique Simmonds, a researcher at the Royal 
     Botanic Gardens at Kew, hired by the coroner at the behest of 
     Perepilichny's life insurance company, uncovered traces of a 
     rare and toxic plant, gelsemium, in the victim's stomach. 
     Gelsemium, as it turns out, does not grow in the verdant 
     climes of Surrey. It is only found in China, where it is a 
     favored poison of assassins. Russian hitmen, too, have been 
     known to access the flower's quiet, lethal capability. At the 
     time of his death, Perepilichny had been helping the Swiss 
     government locate and freeze chunks of the missing $230 
     million, some of which, the U.S. government concluded, wound 
     up in Manhattan real estate and American banks.


                                  2009

       November 16--Sergei Magnitsky, anti-corruption attorney 
     died in police custody in Moscow detention center after 
     allegedly being brutally beaten, then denied medical care. He 
     had been working for British-American businessman William 
     Browder to investigate a massive tax fraud case. Magnitsky 
     was allegedly arrested after uncovering evidence suggesting 
     that police officials were behind the fraud.
       July 15--Natalya Estemirova was kidnapped outside her home, 
     shot several times--including a point-blank shot in the 
     head--and dumped in the nearby woods. A journalist who 
     investigated abductions and murders that had become 
     commonplace in Chechnya where pro-Russian security forces 
     waged a brutal crackdown against Islamic militants. Like 
     fellow journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Estemirova reported on 
     civilians who often got caught between these two violent 
     forces. Nobody has been convicted of her murder.
       January 19--Stanislav Markelov a human rights lawyer known 
     for representing Chechen civilians in human rights cases 
     again the Russian military. He also represented journalists 
     who found themselves in

[[Page H9187]]

     legal trouble after writing articles critical of Putin, 
     including Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya, slain in 
     2006. Markelov was shot by a masked gunman near the Kremlin.
       January 19--Anastasia Baburova, a journalist from Novaya 
     Gazeta, was fatally shot as she tried to help Stanislav 
     Markelov. Russian authorities said a neo-Nazi group was 
     behind the killings, and two members were convicted of the 
     deaths.


                                  2008

       Semyon Korobeinikov, allegedly a clothing salesman, lost 
     his footing on a balcony and tumbled to his demise. A year 
     later, Korobeinikov was named as the purchaser of Universal 
     Savings Bank, a dubious financial institution that had been 
     fingered by investigators as a way-station for stolen Russian 
     money. Only he didn't buy the bank. It was part of a 
     government ruse to exonerate the true owner, an ex-convict 
     called Dmitry Klyuev, implicated in a series of massive tax 
     frauds that cost Russian citizens $1 billion. Korobeinikov 
     might have therefore borne witness against Klyuev, if he 
     wasn't conveniently dead.


                                  2006

       November 23--Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, died 
     three weeks after drinking a cup of tea laced with deadly 
     polonium-210 at a London hotel. A British inquiry found that 
     Litvinenko was poisoned by Russian agents Andrei Lugovoi and 
     Dmitry Kovtun, who were acting on orders that had ``probably 
     been approved by President Putin.'' Russia refused to 
     extradite them, and in 2015 the Russian president granted 
     Lugovoi a medal for ``services to the motherland.'' After 
     leaving the Russian Federal Security Service, Litvinenko 
     became a vocal critic of the agency, which was run by Putin, 
     and later blamed the security service for orchestrating a 
     series of apartment bombings in Russia in 1999 that left 
     hundreds dead.
       October 7--Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian reporter for 
     Novaya Gazeta whose book, ``Putin's Russia,'' accused the 
     Kremlin leader of turning the country into a police state. 
     She wrote extensively about abuse in Chechnya. She was shot 
     at point-blank range in an elevator in her building.


                                  2004

       July 9--Paul Klebnikov, chief editor of the Russian edition 
     of Forbes. He had written about corruption and dug into the 
     lives of wealthy Russians. He was killed in a drive-by 
     shooting in an apparent contract killing.


                                  2003

       October--Mikhail Khodorkovsky jailed for ten years.
       Sergei Yushenkov, the affable former army colonel, had just 
     registered his Liberal Russia movement as a political party 
     when he was gunned down outside his home in Moscow. Yushenkov 
     was gathering evidence he believed proved that the Putin 
     government was behind one of the apartment bombings in 1999.
       July 3--Yuri Shchekochikhin, a Duma deputy, journalist and 
     author who wrote about crime and corruption in the former 
     Soviet Union. He was investigating the 1999 apartment 
     bombings for Novaya Gazeta when he contracted a mysterious 
     illness in July 2003. He died suddenly, a few days before he 
     was supposed to depart for the United States. His medical 
     documents were deemed classified by Russian authorities.
       April 17--Sergiey Yushenkov, 52, the affable former army 
     colonel, who had just registered his Liberal Russia movement 
     as a political party was gunned down outside his home in 
     Moscow. Yushenkov was gathering evidence he believed proved 
     that the Putin government was behind one of the apartment 
     bombings in 1999. He was shot three times in the back by a 
     single assailant using a pistol with a silencer, police said. 
     It was the 10th killing of a member of parliament since 1994.


 International Press Institute figures on Russian journalists who were 
              murdered or died in suspicious circumstances

       2011--three Russian journalists dead (including newspaper 
     editor Khadzhimurad Kamalov, shot 14 times as he left his 
     office); 2010--two dead; 2009--five dead (including a young 
     reporter from Novaya Gazeta, caught in a hail of bullets); 
     2008--four dead; 2007--one killed; 2006--two killed, 
     including Anna Politkovskaya, and Yevgeny Gerasimenko--found 
     in his Saratov flat with a plastic bag pulled over his head 
     and computer missing; 2005--two died; 2004--three, including 
     Paul Klebnikov; 2003--three more; 2002--eight editor 
     (including Valery Ivanov, editor, shot in the head); 2001--
     one; 2000--six dead reporters and editors.

  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, it is hard for people of goodwill to 
imagine the depth of depravity that Russia's malevolent dictators will 
stoop to to serve the narrow, pecuniary, and political interests of the 
few at the price of the many.
  Dr. Timothy Snyder, in his extraordinary book, ``Bloodlands,'' 
recounts the intergenerational human tragedy wrought by Russian 
dictators, citing the 14 million civilians, women, children, and 
families, who were murdered at Russia's hand in eastern and central 
Europe.
  Vladimir Putin is the latest dictator in a long line of them, and, 
sadly, this dark history from Stalin to Putin continues today. It is 
instructive that Putin, himself, has written that his grandfather was a 
trusted cook for Joseph Stalin, working inside the belly of the beast 
of tyranny.
  That is the cocoon from which Russia's Putin has emerged. And now add 
to those millions of deaths over 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed by 
Russia, with thousands upon tens of thousands more wounded and over 2 
million people displaced inside Ukraine, a country that simply wants to 
be free.
  As co-chair of the bipartisan House Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, I 
can attest our Members are committed to holding Russia accountable for 
tyrannical and malevolent activity in Ukraine, and even here in the 
United States.
  Madam Speaker, I rise in pursuit of justice for Amina Okuyeva and in 
solidarity with other freedom fighters in Ukraine. Let her bravery in 
life serve as an inspiration to us all, and let the international 
community stand with Ukraine, shoulder to shoulder, as we continue to 
fight back against Russia's invasion of a sovereign nation fighting for 
a future free of state-sponsored murder and occupation.

                          ____________________