[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10030-10031]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 RUSSIA

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, of the many global challenges we face, 
protecting the environment should find support in all corners of the 
world.

[[Page 10031]]

Similarly, we should support those who work on behalf of the 
environment.
  Unfortunately, in some countries, environmental activists are 
threatened and imprisoned. Such is the case in Russia, where, in the 
shadow of the Olympic Games in Sochi this past winter, Suren Gazaryan 
and Evgeny Vitishko were ruthlessly harassed by government officials 
for their investigative work on the large-scale construction of Olympic 
facilities that caused significant environmental damage to protected 
lands. Both were convicted in 2012 of damaging a fence in a forest near 
the city of Krasnodar, a charge they both deny, and sentenced to 3 
years in a labor camp, suspended.
  Mr. Gazaryan, a recipient of the prestigious 2014 Goldman Prize for 
grassroots efforts to protect and enhance the environment, has sought 
political asylum in neighboring Estonia. Evgeny Vitishko, however, was 
not fortunate enough to escape and is still paying the price for his 
work. On February 12, a Russian judge, upholding a decision that Mr. 
Vitishko violated a curfew clause in his parole agreement, ordered him 
to serve his 3-year prison sentence. Perhaps not coincidentally, this 
came as he and his organization, Environmental Watch of the North 
Caucasus, were preparing to release a report on the damaging effects of 
construction in Sochi.
  I want other Senators to know of Mr. Gazaryan and Mr. Vitishko, and 
hope that calling attention to them and their work might cause the 
Russian authorities to recognize that their responsibility is to uphold 
the law and protect the environment on behalf of the Russian people, 
not to persecute Russian citizens who have the courage to do so 
themselves.

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