[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12973-12974]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         POLITICAL PRISONERS AND POLITICAL REPRESSION IN RUSSIA

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, over the years I have come to the floor to 
raise the plight of political prisoners being held around the globe. 
These have included journalists, activists, bloggers, musicians, and 
opposition candidates who all had the misfortune of landing in an 
autocrat's jail for exercising or advocating for basic freedoms that 
most of the world takes for granted.
  Many of these cases are ones that have received little attention or 
are not in the world's media spotlight, including: Gambian journalist 
Ebrima Manneh, who has been held incommunicado since 2006 and probably 
has died in detention; Vietnamese blogger Dieu Cay, who was jailed for 
12 years for anti-state propaganda and is in poor health due to a 
hunger strike amid his president's recent visit to Washington; Saudi 
blogger Hamza Kashgari, who was grabbed off a plane in Malaysia while 
fleeing for his safety and returned to Saudi Arabia to face charges of 
blasphemy; Turkmen political dissident and human rights activist 
Gulgeldy Annaniyazov, who has been in jail since 2008; and Belarusian 
opposition candidate Mikalai, who was thrown in jail for having the 
temerity to run against his country's strongman, President Lukashenko.
  Many of my colleagues here have helped with these efforts, including 
11 other Senators who recently joined in a letter to Uzbek President 
Karimov asking for the release of activist Akzam Turgunov and 
journalists Dilmurod Saidov and Salijon Abdurakhmanov.
  Others have also championed the cause of political freedom around the 
world, including Senators McCain and Cardin, who have been leaders in 
trying to hold our Russian friends to a higher standard of political 
and human rights freedom.
  In fact, Senator Cardin was tireless in his effort to pass the 
Magnitsky law--a law that I supported--that tried to bring about some 
measure of accountability regarding the death of Russian lawyer Sergei 
Magnitsky, who was jailed after exposing official corruption and later 
died from mistreatment while in custody.
  I have also watched with great dismay the deterioration of democracy 
and human rights in Russia.
  A few years ago I had the chance to speak to the Lithuanian 
Parliament on that country's--the country of my mother's birth--20th 
anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union. One of the other 
speakers on that memorable occasion was Russian democrat small ``d'' 
democrat--Yuriy Afanasyev.
  Many probably did not realize or have forgotten that during those 
heady days in the early 1990s a number of countries--such as 
Lithuania--were early in declaring independence and, as a result, 
helped change history in Eastern Europe.
  And who helped support many such efforts?
  Russian democrats in the streets of Moscow--the same ones who were 
also instrumental in bringing a transition to democracy in their own 
country.
  Afanasyev was just such a Russian. He helped lead large public 
protests in Moscow during the January 1991 crackdown against 
Lithuania's independence movement.
  That is why I find myself so saddened by what is happening in Russia 
today--the systematic state-sponsored harassment and dismantling of 
those Russian citizens and organizations that are still hoping for a 
democratic and free Russia so many years later.
  Just 2 weeks ago, the Russian government tried and convicted popular 
opposition leader and candidate for

[[Page 12974]]

mayor of Moscow Alesksei Navalny on charges that had already been 
thrown out as baseless after a local investigation.
  If his conviction is upheld, he will be banned from public office for 
life.
  Navalny's case is just one of a long list of politically motivated 
charges and actions in recent years used to squash any criticism of the 
Russian government or those who might want to run for political office:
  A few weeks ago, hundreds of protesters were detained by Russian 
Interior Ministry personnel when protesting Navalny's dubious 
conviction--a fate met by scores of nonviolent protesters in recent 
years;
  As of March of this year, the Russian Federal Security Service 
accompanied by tax enforcement and other government personnel has 
raided thousands of NGOs across Russia, seizing documents and 
interrogating staff--all in an orchestrated intimidation campaign;
  Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov has been arrested multiple times for 
peacefully protesting government policies;
  Deputy editor-in-chief of Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta Sergei 
Sokolov fled Russia after the chief federal investigator took him into 
the forest and threatened to decapitate him;
  Doctor of Political Sciences at Kuban State University Mikhail Savva, 
who was a member of the that region's Public Oversight Committee and an 
outspoken voice against corruption was arrested in April and has been 
held without bail on flimsy charges;
  Leader of For Human Rights, Lev Ponomaryov, a prominent human rights 
advocacy group in Moscow, was kicked and beaten during a forceful 
eviction of his organization from their headquarters. The assault was 
carried out by men dressed in civilian clothing, but was observed by 
riot police officers;
  Lastly--and very symbolic of the hundreds arrested at recent 
protests--human rights activist Nikolay Kavkazsky was arrested last 
year at his home for allegedly hitting a policeman during a protest 
although an independent investigation implies he was in fact dodging 
blows from a policeman.
  Let me take a moment to pause and mention an extraordinary story and 
photo from the Washington Post of Russian schoolteacher Marina 
Rozumovskaya, standing alone in front of Moscow City Hall in the 
freezing Russian winter in January of 2011.
  In the photo she is holding an 8 by 11 inch sign that said ``Freedom 
to political prisoners'' in response to the arrest and jailing of a 
prominent opposition leader who had criticized the Russian government.
  Watching and waiting for her to break the law across the street in 
the 10 degree weather were a dozen or so Russian police officers.
  This brave schoolteacher told the Washington Post, ``If you don't 
exercise your rights as a citizen, nothing will ever change.''
  The Russian government has also used almost paranoid legislation to 
restrict Russian human rights and election monitoring organizations 
from doing their work.
  For example, in March of 2013, Russian officials raided the offices 
of hundreds of non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty 
International.
  Equally troubling, Russia's largest elections watchdog GOLOS, and its 
executive director Lilia Shibanova, were fined for failing to register 
as a ``foreign agent,'' even after receiving the prestigious Sakharov 
Prize by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and rejecting the monetary 
portion of the award.
  Russia has also passed draconian laws that include fines equivalent 
to an average annual salary for taking part in unsanctioned protests, 
stiffer libel penalties, a broader definition of treason, and 
restrictions on websites--laws that former Soviet leader Mikhail 
Gorbachev has denounced as an ``attack on the rights of citizens.''
  Earlier this year Gorbachev also warned Russian President Putin ``not 
to be afraid of his own people.''
  Remember Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian who tried to draw attention to 
massive police and tax fraud who died in Russian custody? He was 
convicted a few weeks ago of perpetrating fraud himself--4 years after 
he died.
  After what many brave Russian democrats did for countries such as 
Lithuania and others breaking free from the Soviet Union, we owe it to 
speak up for those who are fighting for basic political freedoms today 
in Russia.
  These endless show trials are not for criminals or foreign agent 
organizations. They are not worthy of a great nation.
  These are petty attacks on patriotic Russians who want the freedom to 
peacefully criticize and improve their government, to run for office, 
to have clean elections, and to have an independent judiciary that is 
not used to quash political opponents.
  The Russian people--our friends--deserve better than to have such 
aspirations so brazenly and so shortsightedly repressed.

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