S.Amdt. 2202

SA 2202. Mr. RISCH submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 4049, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2021 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle D of title XII, add the following:

SEC. __. SENSE OF SENATE ON THE STATE OF DEMOCRACY IN THE
REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA.

(a) Findings.--The Senate makes the following findings:
(1) Since gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in
1991, the United States has strongly supported the Republic
of Georgia's democratic transition and Euro-Atlantic
aspirations.
(2) Since its liberation from a communist dictatorship,
Georgia has made great strides in democratic governance,
free-market economic reforms, and the rule of law.
(3) Since 1992, the United States has provided Georgia with
at least $4,200,000,000 in assistance, including at least
$732,000,000 in defense assistance.
(4) Georgia has been a committed partner of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization and has contributed significant
military forces and resources to the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization missions in Afghanistan and the Multi-National
Force in Iraq.
(5) Russia has illegally occupied the eorgia territories of
South Ossetia and Abkhazia since 2008, which comprise fully
20 percent of the land of Georgia, in contravention of
international law.
(6) On June 20, 2019, as part of the Interparliamentary
Assembly on Orthodoxy held in Tbilisi, Georgia, Member of the
Russian State Duma, Sergei Gavrilov, addressed the group from
the chairman's seat in the Parliament of Georgia, leading to
a political uproar in Georgia.
(7) In response to the actions of Mr. Gavrilov and worries
of growing Russian interference in the politics of Georgia,
tens of thousands of Georgians took to the streets in
protest, including by barricading and attempting to storm the
parliamentary building.
(8) The Georgian riot police violently suppressed the
protests, including through the use of water cannons, which
resulted in hundreds of individuals severely injured and
several hundred detained.
(9) On July 25, 2019, Irakli Okruashvili, a former Defense
Minister of Georgia and a leader of the political opposition,
was arrested on charges of inciting violence during the June
2019 protests against the government and sentenced to five
years in prison.
(10) On November 18, 2019, Giorgi Rurua, a businessman and
founder of the television channel Mtavari Arkhi was arrested
on charges of possessing an illegal firearm.
(11) On February 10, 2020, Giorgi (Gigi) Ugulava, the
former mayor of Tbilisi and a leader of the political
opposition, despite having previously served a prison term of
15 months on charges of misusing funds while mayor of
Tbilisi, was sentenced to an additional 38 months in prison
on similar charges.
(12) Independent observers and Georgia's political
opposition maintain that these arrests were politically
motivated.
(13) On March 8, 2020, the Embassies of the United States,
the European Union, and Germany, and the representation of
the Council of Europe in Georgia, facilitated an agreement
between several political parties of Georgia designed to
break a political deadlock, implement Organization for
Security Co-operation in Europe recommendations on electoral
reform, and move Georgian democracy forward.
(14) The parties reached a consensus ``on the importance of
upholding and striving for the highest standards in the
functioning of Georgia's judicial system'' and ``the
necessity of addressing actions that could be perceived as
inappropriate politicization of Georgia's judicial and
electoral processes''.
(15) The agreement detailed the changes that would be made
to the electoral law of the Republic of Georgia under which
the 2020 parliamentary elections would be conducted, to
include ``an election system for 2020 based on 120
proportional mandates and 30 majoritarian mandates, a fair
composition of election districts, a 1% threshold, and a cap
recognizing that no single party that wins less than 40% of
the votes should be able to get its own majority in the next
parliament.''.
(16) On May 11, 2020, having seen little progress in
implementing the agreements of March 8, 2020, the
facilitators called publicly

[[Page S3610]]

``upon all sides to uphold the letter and spirit of both
parts of the agreement with a view to its successful
implementation''.
(17) On May 15, 2020, Georgian President Salome
Zurabishvili pardoned Irakli Okruashvili and Giorgi (Gigi)
Ugulava, saying that ``I cannot allow the agreement
recognized by the international community not to be
implemented because of them''.
(18) Despite the agreement, Giorgi Rurua still remains in
pre-trial detention.
(19) Opposition parties in Georgia maintain that the
release of all political prisoners, including Mr. Rurua, is a
precondition for their support for the agreed upon changed to
the electoral law.
(20) The agreed changes to the electoral system remain
incomplete, although parliamentary elections are set for late
October 2020.
(b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate
that the Senate--
(1) applauds the strides Georgia has made in governance,
economic reforms, and anti-corruption since Georgia's
independence from the Soviet Union;
(2) reaffirms the desire for continued cooperation between
the United States and Georgia in furthering those efforts,
including in defense of Georgia's sovereignty and territorial
integrity, should the Government of Georgia continue to
exhibit a good faith effort to implement those reforms;
(3) urges the Government, elected officials, and political
leaders of Georgia to reject the temptations of power and
work together to continue to build a free press, allow for
private enterprise, and become ever more accountable and
transparent in governance;
(4) underscores the importance of implementing the
Organization for Security Co-operation in Europe
recommendations on electoral reform agreed to by Georgian
political parties on March 8, 2020;
(5) urges the Government of Georgia to further strengthen
the country's democracy by improving judicial independence,
including by implementing more transparent procedures to
appoint judges for all courts and ending the practice of
appointing judges who are unduly influenced by or loyal to
the ruling party;
(6) affirms that successful implementation of these
electoral and judicial reforms is critical to the ability of
the Government of Georgia to restore trust in its commitment
to continued democratic development and further integration
with the West;
(7) calls upon the Government of Georgia to undertake
policies that strengthen both the spirit and letter of
Georgia's democratic and legal processes and thus further
solidify Georgia's Euro-Atlantic path; and
(8) recognizes the importance of the upcoming elections for
the Parliament of Georgia and calls on officials of the
Government of Georgia to ensure that such elections are free,
fair, peaceful, and conducted according to the rules agreed
to on March 8, 2020.
______