President Vladimir Putin's Policies

Floor Speech

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.

Source