Corruption, Overthrowing Rule of Law, and Ruining Ukraine: Putin’s Trifecta Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6846) to require a review of sanctions with respect to Russian kleptocrats and human rights abusers, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 6846, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6846, the Corruption, Overthrowing Rule of Law, and Ruining Ukraine: Putin's Trifecta Act, or better known as the CORRUPT Act. You can imagine we worked hard on that acronym.

I first thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for the bipartisan effort. Representatives Curtis, Kinzinger, Salazar, Fitzpatrick, and Joe Wilson, on the Republican side, led this bill with me when Putin's invasion kicked off.

And despite what the news often says, behind the curtains I have seen tremendous bipartisan unity over the last 6 months to ensure that Ukraine's brave people have all of the military hardware and economic support that they need.

I will start by reminding us why we are advancing the CORRUPT Act today. We are passing this bill today because of the death and destruction in Ukraine.

Right here, you see a picture from the village of Bucha. When Bucha was liberated, Ukrainians found mass graves with hundreds, including many civilians with hands tied behind their

backs. The Associated Press says more than 1,300 bodies have been found in just this one location. And sadly, as the Ukrainian military advances and retakes more of its sovereign territory from the Russian invaders, more such evidence of massacres is coming to light.

We are here because this is a moral outrage, because this is evil. We are also here because we understand that the people of Ukraine are not just fighting for their country; they are fighting for ours. They are not just fighting for their freedom and security; they are fighting for ours.

They are fighting for the idea that in the 21st century, no country can change borders with tanks. No leader can seek power through murder. These are principles that protect everybody in the world, including the people of the United States.

And with this bill, we are sending another clear bipartisan signal that Congress supports President Biden's unprecedented sanctions against Putin's regime; and that we will continue to push for targeted sanctions against key enablers of Putin's repression until Ukraine is free.

Now, we have before us a list of nearly 200 key cronies of Putin. Identified by brave Russian democracy activists, these are the people who keep Putin in power and continue to fuel the war in Ukraine. They must not continue to profit from investments, accounts, condos, properties, planes, yachts held in the West.

But I also want to use this opportunity to make an important point; that Putin's senseless invasion started with his cruel repression inside Russia. The first victims of Putin were in Russia, brave Russians who stood up for democracy and freedom in their country.

Right here, you see a picture of a dear friend of mine, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a brave Russian hero. Putin tried to poison him twice, and he survived, miraculously. Putin now holds him in Russia's new gulags. Why? Because he openly calls for democracy and freedom in Russia.

So you don't get to the war crimes in Bucha without this. So this is why the U.S. Congress is going to continue pushing for targeted sanctions against those corrupt cronies of Putin propping up his repression and fueling the horrific war in Ukraine; because it is the same people responsible for both of these crimes; because we believe it is what is best for the Ukrainian people and the Russian people and for the United States.

I would like to use Vladimir Kara-Murza's own words to make that point. He said that the Magnitsky Act, the bill that we passed years ago to facilitate the sanctions against corrupt and repressive cronies of the Putin regime:

The Magnitsky Act is the most pro-Russian law ever to have

been passed by a foreign parliament. Nothing can send a chill

down the backs of Putin's autocratic enablers like the

realization that not even the Kremlin, with all of its

patronage, all of its oil money, will be able to guarantee

their ill-gotten gains.

Finally, as we continue to freeze the assets of corrupt Russian officials and leaders, we must also face the fact that many of their condominiums, and villas, and investment accounts, and trusts remain hidden right here in the United States because of loopholes in our own laws.

So I am going to continue to push with the same congressional leaders who have supported the CORRUPT Act, the bill we are passing today, Representatives Maria Salazar, Joe Wilson, Steve Cohen, Abigail Spanberger, Richard Hudson, to include the House-passed ENABLERS Act in this year's NDAA, the national defense bill.

It will make sure that Putin's cronies, the ones who we are sanctioning today in the CORRUPT Act, as well as Venezuelan kleptocrats, and Chinese Communist Party officials repressing their people, that these dictators and their enablers can no longer hide their money and earn interest here in New Jersey, in Florida, and across America.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for the purpose of closing.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 6846, with this bill, the CORRUPT Act, we stand in bipartisan solidarity with the Ukrainian people and with the many people in Russia who oppose this war, who believe that Putin's regime is as destructive to their country as it is to the rest of the world.

We are saying, with passing this bill, that the United States is absolutely committed to tracking down the dirty money that props up Putin's repression, his brutal criminal war in Ukraine. Hopefully, as we scour the world to seize the yachts and the property and the bank accounts of these people, we will be able to put the proceeds of that wealth to good use to help rebuild the country that Putin is destroying.

Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I was pleased to have co-sponsored the CORRUPT Act, H.R. 6846 (Corruption, Overthrowing Rule of Law, and Ruining Ukraine: Putin's Trifecta Act) in the House and to see its passage on the floor this week. This Act requires the President to report to Congress, within 30 days of this bill's enactment, a determination as to whether specified Russian persons identified in the bill meet the criteria to be subject to sanctions under laws that authorize sanctions relating to corruption or human rights violations. This legislation identifies nearly 200 names for immediate review by the Administration and, in my belief, can play a very important role in stopping Putin's cronies from operating under the radar and from advancing the Kremlin's evil agenda.

While this bill represents a critically important step forward, there are additional Russian entities (and names representing the leadership ranks within those entities) that, while not included in this legislation, warrant close attention by the Administration as well. I believe a particular focus on the Russian financial sector is warranted, and that government agencies in the sector play an integral role in financing Russia's war in Ukraine.

One specific government agency worthy of sanctions is the Russian DIA, or the Russian Depositary Insurance Agency, which I, along with Congressman John Curtis, brought to the Administration's attention earlier this year.

The DIA, established in 2004, is a Russian state-owned corporation, controlled by a board dominated by officials from the (now sanctioned) Central Bank of Russia. In its official capacity, the DIA operates the national deposit insurance system for Russian banks and acts as the sole authorized bankruptcy administrator of financial institutions deemed insolvent in Russia.

Hiding behind this innocuous role, however, the DIA leads Kremlin- directed efforts to nationalize the assets of Russian financial institutions, funneling the assets of privately owned businesses to now-sanctioned Russian state banks such as Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank. I have been made aware that many of the businesses that the DIA targets on behalf of the Central Bank of Russia are owned by individuals who have been blacklisted as political targets of the Russian state and lack sufficient political protection from these kinds of schemes.

The CEO of the DIA, Andrey Melnikov, was sanctioned by the United States in 2017 for his role as Minister of Economic Development of the Russian-occupied territory of Crimea, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Melnikov was re-sanctioned by the Treasury Department just last week, for his role at the DIA, as well. Other members of the DIA's legal team (such as Andrey Pavlov) have been sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act for their key roles in attacking Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his supporters in Russia and abroad, often using abusive lawsuits and court proceedings around the world to pressure them into abandoning their support for democratic change and rule-of-law in Russia.

By taking actions to target the DIA directly, the U.S. government can play a key role in cutting off Russia's long arm of oppression abroad and limit Putin's ability to fund his war chest. Sanctioning the DIA will not only hamper its ability to expropriate assets from privately held Russian financial businesses, but also help defend brave Russian dissidents and opponents of Putin abroad from predatory attacks by law firms in the employ of the DIA.

Individuals in leadership positions in the DIA, who I believe that, along with Director Melnikov, should be reviewed for the future imposition of sanctions include:

Filatova, Maria Vladislavovna, First Deputy General Director of the

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker I rise in support of this bill. Without question, the horrific and illegal war Russia is waging against the people of Ukraine is Putin's war.

But Putin's regime and, by extension, his barbaric behavior in Ukraine, are shamelessly supported by too many Russian military officials, lawmakers, oligarchs, and propagandists who have yet to face U.S. sanctions.

These enablers and supporters of Putin's unprovoked war of aggression should not be able to set foot in the United States of America. They should not be able to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth here. They should not be able to buy expensive homes here, and they should not be able to send their children to school here.

Failing to act would be a great disservice to the victims of Putin's depravity, not just in Ukraine, but those in Russia as well who have suffered from the Kremlin's domestic crackdown.

At the outset of the full-scale invasion, Putin signed a ludicrous law mandating sentences of up to 15 years for telling the truth about his war in Ukraine. In Russia, calling it a war and not a special operation is illegal.

Questioning the wisdom of his unjustifiable war is illegal. Those still brave enough to speak out these truths, including Vladimir Kara- Murza, now sit behind bars in Russia as political prisoners.

This bill calls on the administration to make a sanctions determination for nearly 200 Russians linked to the regime's pervasive corruption and human rights violations. These names were compiled by a team of investigators organized by now-jailed Russian opposition politician and anticorruption crusader Aleksei Navalny for not only their part in Putin's kleptocracy but also for supporting the Kremlin's war against Ukraine.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill to send a strong signal to Putin's regime and all his cronies that they will be held accountable for backing the regime's crimes at home and abroad.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for closing.

Mr. Speaker, in the months leading up to February 24, many of us called for the Biden administration to impose severe sanctions before-- let me underscore ``before''--Russian troops amassing on Ukraine's border invaded. These sanctions, we argued, would make crystal clear to Putin and his cronies that they would be held accountable for launching this renewed invasion.

Unfortunately, the administration chose not to heed this warning, sacrificing a final opportunity to deter the war raging today.

While the administration has since worked with allies and partners to cut off funding to Putin's war machine, it cannot rest in its efforts to target all those in Russia complicit in the Kremlin's crimes at home and abroad. Thus, I urge all my colleagues to support this bill to ensure Putin's enablers face real consequences.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to section 2 of House Resolution 1361, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bills: H.R. 1433, H.R. 4009, H.R. 4358, H.R. 6265, H.R. 6846, H.R. 7240, H.R. 7338, H.R. 8453, H.R. 8503, and H.R. 8520; and agree to H. Res. 558.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.