WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) spoke about the decline in the rule of law in Russia following a verdict in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev and the arrest of prominent Russian opposition figures, including former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov.
Click here to watch Senator Wicker speak on the Senate Floor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRBh-wuxzLo
Excerpts from Senator Wicker’s remarks: “We watched with hope that this would be a new day for people behind the iron curtain and a new opportunity for freedom and openness in that society. Unfortunately, year after year, month after month, we’ve seen since the fall of the Soviet Union a very regrettable and disturbing deterioration in the rule of law in Russia.” “It should concern all of us that within two weeks of this body approving the New START Treaty, a Russian court issued a second spurious guilty verdict against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. Almost simultaneously authorities in Russia arrested prominent Russian opposition figure, former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov.” “What do these most recent events mean? To me they are two other examples of how the current Russian leadership does not respect universal values such as the rule of law and freedom of expression and assembly.”
