[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 19]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 25419-25420]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 BREAKDOWN OF THE RULE OF LAW IN RUSSIA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 19, 2004

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, an undeniable tenant of any democracy is the 
rule of law. Sadly, this is not the case in Russia today. That 
country's legal system is taking on the appearance of Czarist Russia 
and the Soviet Union, when the legal system and courts were merely 
instruments of the State. This past year, we have witnessed a series of 
arbitrary and discriminatory actions, directed by the Kremlin, against 
select individuals and companies, that are politically motivated and 
lacking in legal merit, according reputable human rights groups and 
widely reported in the Western press.

[[Page 25420]]

  The most notable case is the YUKOS Oil Company, one of Russia's early 
privatized companies, known for its Western management style and global 
outlook, that today is under siege by a government clearly intent on 
destroying or taking control of Russia's largest oil producer. The 
chairman of YUKOS, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was arrested and indefinitely 
detained on charges that are murky and, again, appear to be of a 
political nature rather than criminal intent.
  Our colleagues on the Senate side last year unanimously approved S. 
Res. 258, which stated, in part, ``the law enforcement and judicial 
authorities of the Russian Federation should ensure that Mr. Mikhail B. 
Khodorkovsky is accorded the full measure of his rights under the 
Russian Constitution to defend himself against any and all charges that 
may be brought against him, in a fair and transparent process, so that 
individual justice may be done. . . .''
  Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Senate spoke out one year ago, and since then 
the Russian government has levied an $18 billion tax bill on YUKOS, far 
beyond its earnings, which is apparently intended to pave the way for a 
government take over of one of the world's largest oil companies. Mr. 
Khodorkovsky is confined to a cage on his daily trips to the courtroom, 
where he is denied the customary rights of a defendant and indeed is 
facing a verdict that may well be pre-ordained by the Kremlin.
  Mr. Speaker, I also call to the attention of my colleagues another 
example of Russia's crude application of a legal system that denies, 
rather than protects the rights of the accused and clearly violates the 
norms and standards of decency and respect for human rights.
  Mr. Alexei Pichugin, a former white collar security officer for the 
YUKOS Company, is currently on trial in Moscow on charges, so it is 
alleged, of murder. This is another case that is being closely 
monitored by human rights groups and others because of the bizarre 
series of actions by prosecutors who appear to be using the formal 
charges to pressure Mr. Pichugin to testify against his former bosses 
at YUKOS.
  I do not presume to know the guilt or innocence of Mr. Pichugin; that 
is for a properly conducted court trial and unbiased jury to determine. 
But I am troubled, as are many of my colleagues, about the politicizing 
of Russia's legal system and the denial of a just and fair trial 
because the court itself is not truly independent.
  Indeed, the Council of Europe's rapporteur, Sabine Leutheusser-
Schnarrenberger, has called the allegations reguarding Mr. Pichugin's 
mistreatment ``very serious.'' She notes: ``I cannot myself help 
worrying about the possibly illicit investigative methods and pressures 
that Mr. Pichugin could be subjected to at a prison that remains 
withdrawn from the normal supervisory procedures by the Ministry of 
Justice.''
  Just yesterday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 
PACE released a report pointing out that Russian authorities continue 
to violate the principle of equality before the law, based on legal 
analysis of the facts surrounding the arrests and prosecutions of 
former YUKOS executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Alexei Pichugin and 
Platon Lebedev.
  While the trial of Alexi Pichugin is being conducted in secrecy, the 
evidence of abuse by the prosecutors and court handling the matter has 
been widely reported in the press. I, therefore, urge the 
Administration to refocus its attention on the deterioration of the 
rule of law in Russia. It would be very unfortunate if while we were 
striving to establish a democracy in Iraq, one broke down completely in 
the Russian Federation.

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