[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 15445-15446]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           RUSSIA'S CONTINUING DISREGARD FOR THE RULE OF LAW

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MATT SALMON

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 18, 2014

  Mr. SALMON. Mr. Speaker, I want to bring to my colleagues' attention 
a September 8, 2014 article by David Clark, printed in the Huffington 
Post UK, entitled, ``The Unacceptable Face of Putinism''. In this 
troubling article, Mr. Clark comments on Russia's continued efforts to 
ignore, and in fact undermine, the rule of law. At the heart of this 
most recent demonstration is Putin crony, Igor Sechin, a former KGB 
operative-turned-Rosneft CEO, who, reportedly, upon losing an 
arbitration case at The Hague under the Energy Charter Treaty and being 
required to pay $50 billion in compensation to the majority shareholder 
of YUKOS Oil, threatened the plaintiff, Mr. Leonid Nevzlin.
  The lawsuit stems from the Kremlin's act of taking over YUKOS Oil and 
imprisoning the company's top executives. As we watch Russia violate 
Ukraine's sovereignty through its annexation of Crimea and flout the 
international community's warnings about their actions in Eastern 
Ukraine, it is important to note that President Putin's government 
continues to violate the rule of law and must be held accountable. 
Russia must be required to live up to their international obligations, 
which includes compliance with rulings by The Hague as prescribed in 
the Energy Charter Treaty. The international community must ensure that 
Russia is held accountable for their actions and meets their 
responsibilities under the law. I hope my colleagues will take the time 
to read this article.

             [From the Huffington Post, UK, Sept. 8, 2014]

                   The Unacceptable Face of Putinism

                            (By David Clark)

       There isn't a better weathervane of Kremlin opinion than 
     Igor Sechin. The 53 year old former KGB operative has been 
     Vladimir Putin's most loyal and influential lieutenant since 
     they worked together for the Mayor of St. Petersburg in the 
     1990s. Officially he has served as Deputy Head of the 
     Presidential Administration, Deputy Prime Minister and now 
     Chairman of Rosneft, the state oil company. Unofficially he 
     has long been leader of the Kremlin's hardline siloviki 
     faction; the group of senior intelligence and security 
     officers who provide the muscle that makes Putin's leadership 
     possible. So when Sechin publicly threatens the life of an 
     exiled Russian businessman, as he did recently, it's worth 
     paying attention. Russia's behaviour could be about to take 
     another turn for the worse.
       Sechin's outburst came at the end of a bad period for 
     Russia. Already facing escalating international sanctions and 
     a setback to its covert military intervention in Eastern 
     Ukraine, an international tribunal in The Hague at the end of 
     July found the Russian government guilty of illegally 
     expropriating Yukos Oil a decade ago and ordered it to 
     compensate the company's former majority shareholders to the 
     tune of $50bn. This was a particularly bitter blow to Sechin 
     who has been accused of personally orchestrated the 
     destruction of Yukos and who's company, Rosneft, subsequently 
     acquired its main production assets. Indeed, Rosneft stands 
     to lose directly if its assets outside Russia are seized to 
     facilitate payment of the award. Incensed by the loss of face 
     and the possible loss of business, Sechin raged about the 
     unfairness of the ruling before turning his remarks directly 
     to Leonid Nevzlin, the largest former shareholder. Nevzlin, 
     he warned, ``should take care of himself.''
       It's hard to interpret this as anything other than a direct 
     physical threat. Given Sechin's status and connections, it 
     certainly deserves to be treated as more than a throwaway 
     remark. Putin's Russia has a long history of using targeted 
     assassination as a tool of policy, both inside Russia and 
     abroad. Outside Russia the targets have usually been armed 
     Chechen separatists. Investigating authorities in both Qatar 
     and Turkey have accused the Russian intelligence agencies of 
     murdering Chechen exiles on their territory.
       Russia is hardly alone in carrying out the targeted 
     assassination of those it deems to be terrorists. But it is 
     also now one of the few countries that appears ready to use 
     the same method against non-violent opponents. Rather than a 
     shocking exception, the 2006 murder in London of former 
     Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko may prove 
     to be an ominous foretaste of what the Kremlin is capable of. 
     Now the subject of a public inquiry, British officials long 
     ago concluded that there was Russian state involvement in the 
     crime.
       Yet even in the Litvinenko case the motive was related to 
     national security, or at least the Kremlin's interpretation 
     of it. If Leonid Nevzlin has now been added to a hit list it 
     marks a further escalation of Moscow's willingness to resort 
     to violence beyond its border. After all, the offence that 
     seems to have made him a target was to do nothing more than 
     exercise his legal rights in a court of law.
       In the context of the ongoing violence in Eastern Ukraine, 
     it might be tempting for Western governments to treat 
     Sechin's indiscretion as a matter of comparatively little 
     importance. That would be a mistake. If Russia is allowed, in 
     effect, to announce its willingness to resort to state 
     terrorism, there is no way of knowing what consequences may 
     follow. The Kremlin is strongly suspected of involvement in 
     the dioxin poisoning that almost killed Victor Yushchenko 
     shortly before he became President of Ukraine in 2004. 
     Without a clear signal of international condemnation it might 
     consider doing something similar today to President 
     Poroshenko or Prime Minister Yatsenyuk. The message therefore 
     needs to be sent that murder for political ends would put 
     Russia outside the community of civilised nations.
       The first step should be for the European Union to follow 
     U.S. policy in putting Igor Sechin on the sanctions list of 
     individuals subject to travel bans and asset freezes. The 
     U.S. included Sechin on its list because of the immense 
     influence he has exerted during Russia's lurch towards 
     authoritarian nationalism. Perversely, the EU chose to 
     exclude him from its own list for precisely the same reason. 
     He is considered too important to be signalled out for 
     punishment because of his involvement in the strategically 
     vital energy sector where Europe's dependence on Russian 
     imports has all but paralysed its capacity to act. That will 
     need to change if the EU wants to challenge the impunity of 
     the Russian elite.
       A second step should be for Western governments to issue a 
     formal demarche and put Russia's leaders on notice that the 
     country will be designated a state sponsor of terrorism if 
     any attempt is made to follow through on the threat against 
     Nevzlin or anyone else legitimately standing up to the 
     Kremlin. Difficult as this may be, the lessons of the recent 
     past have to be learned. Every time the West has shied away 
     from tough action in the face of Russian lawlessness the 
     result has been to encourage its leaders to greater and more 
     dangerous policy excess. It's time to draw a line.

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