[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18606]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



  RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN DETERMINED TO DESTROY INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN 
                                 RUSSIA

  (Mr. LANTOS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, having just returned from Russia, I can 
testify that the Mafia permeates all aspects of Russian society, but 
when Mafia tactics are used by the government, we are dealing with a 
new threat.
  I call my colleagues' attention to a lead editorial in today's 
Washington Post. ``Russian President Vladimir Putin, who proclaimed his 
devotion to a free press during a recent visit to the United States, in 
fact seems determined to destroy Russia's independent media, the growth 
of which constituted one of the important successes of the post-Soviet 
era. His latest target is NTV, Russia's only independent television 
network. He is attacking it with a veneer of legality, but the 
underlying tactics of threats, imprisonments and political prosecution 
are not subtle.''
  Mr. Putin better change his course. He cannot be accepted by the 
civilized world if he destroys one of the important achievements of the 
Yeltsin era--a free press. A free press is our last guarantee that 
Russia will develop in a democratic direction.

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