[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 14053]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN'S POLICIES

                                  _____
                                 

                            HON. MATT SALMON

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 1, 2014

  Mr. SALMON. Mr. Speaker, as everyone in this Chamber knows, Russia 
has been conducting itself in a manner that is irresponsible and 
demands accountability. Over the past several months we have witnessed 
President Vladimir Putin's ruthless actions in Crimea and now Eastern 
Ukraine that has prompted a series of economic sanctions that are being 
escalated as he continues to display a doctrine of muscular nationalism 
amid the growing concerns in Europe and the U. S.
  This past week, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague 
announced a historic ruling that the Russian Federation had violated 
the Energy Charter Treaty when it expropriated the assets of the Yukos 
Oil Company after fabricating tax charges and put its founder and 
chairman, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in prison. Mr. Khodorkovsky's former 
holding company, GML, rightly brought the case to the Hague and 
received a ruling in their favor that exceeded $50 billion.
  I have been following this case for the past ten years because I am 
personally acquainted with Mr. Khodorkovsky and was greatly concerned 
when the Russian government confiscated his company and then had him 
arrested. At the time, a top aide to President Putin, Igor Sechin, 
maneuvered the government takeover of Yukos and eventually created 
Rosneft, a company he now heads, without any compensation to the Yukos 
Oil Company investors and shareholders.
  I am pleased that Mr. Khodorkovsky was eventually released from 
prison and that the Hague's Arbitration Court, after seven years of 
litigation, has finally brought justice to a case where one of the 
world's largest countries seized the assets of its largest company, 
thus violating all the principles associated with the rule of law.
  But as the extensive news accounts reveal, it is unlikely that the 
Russian Federation under the guidance of Mr. Putin will honor the 
court's decision that awarded the GML shareholders about half of the 
original $114 billion claim. Undoubtedly, Russia will exhaust all means 
to contest the ruling and avoid payment, but ultimately justice will 
prevail even if it results in the seizure of assets outside Russia.
  Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that President Vladimir Putin's 
authoritarianism and nationalistic policies are moving our bilateral 
relationship back to the Cold War days. The Russian leader has to 
recognize that in today's world he has to be held accountable for 
actions that are reprehensible, whether they are geopolitical in 
attempting to impose his will on other countries or internal when it 
involves the core tenets of democracy: rule of law, a free press and a 
viable opposition. Indeed he is taking Russia in the wrong direction.

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