[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.
____________________