The U.S. Senate within the law DASKA on “the Kremlin’s aggression” will initiate its own investigation of the murder of Boris Nemtsov

The U.S. Senate intends to find out the truth about the death of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot February 27, 2015 on the Big Moskvoretsky bridge in Moscow

Moscow-Live.ru

As reported by the Russian service “voice of America” the Chairman of the Foundation Council of Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Kara-Murza, in the new bill, States “On the security protection of America from the Kremlin’s aggression” among the sanctions and other measures against Russia were mentioned and two of the report

Rafael Saakov / commons.wikimedia.org

The U.S. Senate intends to find out the truth about the death of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot February 27, 2015 on the Big Moskvoretsky bridge in Moscow.

As reported by the Russian service “voice of America” the Chairman of the Foundation Council of Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Kara-Murza, in the new bill, States “On the security protection of America from the Kremlin’s aggression” (Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act, DASKA) sanctions and other measures against Russia was mentioned, and two reports – one on personal status and the assets of Vladimir Putin, the second is about the initiative of the investigation by the US government for the murder of Boris Nemtsov.

“The bill DASKA, who on February 13 was introduced in the U.S. Senate by a group of legislators from both parties, and is virtually identical to the text of a similar bill introduced last year, there is one very serious innovation: it contains the article, according to which, where the U.S. government is obliged within six months after the entry into force of this law, to prepare and submit to Congress a report on all the circumstances of the murder of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, including the names of the alleged participants at all levels,” explained Vladimir Kara-Murza, “Voice of America”.

– March in memory of Nemtsov will be held in Moscow on 24 February at 13:00

According to the Chairman of the Foundation Council of Boris Nemtsov, “the report must contain an evaluation of the effectiveness of actions of the Russian authorities to find the perpetrators of this murder.”

Kara-Murza provided article of the bill devoted to the investigation of the murder of Boris Nemtsov, which States that the report must be submitted “to the appropriate congressional committees and leadership” by the U.S. Secretary of state Michael Pompeo and the Director of national intelligence Dan Coates.

Under the “relevant committees and the leadership”, as explained in the bill, refers to the committees on foreign Affairs of both houses, on banks, housing and urban Affairs, the leaders of the majority and the minority in the Senate and the House of representatives and the speaker of the house of representatives.

In accordance with the bill, the report needs to be open, but may contain closed part.

Vladimir Kara-Murza believes that the period of six months allocated to the investigation by the US authorities for the murder of Boris Nemtsov, is important: “In my opinion, it is absolutely key, because we see that almost four years the Russian authorities to block the full proper investigation – not named organizers and customers, it is forbidden to speak about the motive of the wrong article of the Criminal code. A man who wanted to indict that he is one of the organizers of the murder, had not opened when he knocked on the door, and they turned around and left.”

“We understand that the Russian leadership today have a clear objective – to prevent a full investigation of the high-profile political assassination in Russia. So we will do everything in our power to run the mechanisms of international supervision of this case. Fortunately, Russia does not exist in a vacuum, Russia – a member of the Council of Europe and the OSCE. Two years ago the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe appointed a special Rapporteur on the matter of the investigation of the murder of Boris Nemtsov – Emmanuelis of Zingeris from Lithuania. He, however, was denied entry to the territory of the Russian Federation, which, in my opinion, is a more than eloquent position of the Russian authorities. I hope that in the near future similar developments will be on the site of the OSCE parliamentary Assembly,” – said the Russian opposition.

Vladimir Kara-Murza noted that the initiative of us senators cannot be considered interference in Russia’s internal Affairs: “what is now contained in the American bill is the legal framework of the OSCE, because the United States, like Russia, are members of the OSCE. The Moscow document of OSCE from 1991 clearly establishes that the issues associated with legality, human rights and fundamental freedoms cannot be considered an internal affair of any country, and are subject to international obligations. It is in that the US government should be in the case of adoption of law to prepare this report.”

He also stressed that orders the state Department and the US intelligence are not accidental: “we are Talking about those agencies of the US government that have the resources and opportunities to prepare and present relevant information. It’s hard for me to say – what sort of internal mechanisms will, but most importantly, the key point of all of this, in my opinion, the fact that the lack of political will of the Russian leadership to conduct a normal investigation with international oversight is, of course, weak, but the only possibility at this stage not to give the criminals to completely evade responsibility”.

The law DASKA – “ON the protection of America’s security from the Kremlin’s aggression”

The new bill, States “On the security protection of America from the Kremlin’s aggression” (Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act, DASKA), introduced to Congress on Wednesday, February 13, five senators, including the Chairman of the international relations Committee Democrat Robert Menendez and a member of this Committee, Republican Lindsey Graham, contains proposals for the introduction of new sanctions against Russia.

This bill is a stricter version filed in August 2018 draft law “On the protection of U.S. security from the aggression of the Kremlin” (DASKA), among the initiators which also featured Menendez and Graham.

The bill DASKA 2.0 contains the sanctions of the first version of the bill, but Congress and offers additional measures. In particular, it envisages the introduction of new economic sanctions against Russia in connection with “the Kremlin’s meddling in democratic institutions abroad” and “the aggression of the Kremlin against Ukraine.”

The restrictive measures should apply to debt of the Russian Federation.

Penalties are provided in respect of any transactions with the newly issued Russian sovereign bonds, in respect of projects of Russian companies in the energy sector outside of Russia, and also in respect of investments in the Russian liquefied natural gas projects outside Russia.

This bill also envisages sanctions against Russian cyber sector as well as Russian banks, which us senators suspect that the support for intervention in the election campaign abroad. Finally, sanctions will be imposed on individuals who “directly or indirectly involved in corrupt and criminal acts done in the interests of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin”.

This document suggests within 90 days after the adoption of the bill to check whether the behavior of Russia in the Kerch Strait freedom of navigation and international law. If wrongdoing is found, then against Russia will be sanctioned. We are talking about introduction working in the field of shipbuilding of the Russian Federation constituent entities to the sanctions list SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) of the office for foreign assets control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury, which entails complete isolation of these companies from the American financial system.

The bill requires the US President to impose sanctions in respect of 24 members of the FSB of Russia who are responsible for the attack on Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait and for the arrest of 24 Ukrainian sailors. 25 November 2018, the border service of the FSB detained them and three Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait. The sailors were charged with illegally crossing the border.

DASKA 2.0 also contains requirements for the US administration to more closely fulfill the law on the control of chemical and biological weapons from 1991, which provides for the application of sanctions against use of chemical weapons in the country. In August 2018, the US has imposed sanctions against Russia, prohibit the export to Russia of goods and technologies controlled by the U.S. regulators on the criterion of national security (avionics, underwater vehicles, gas turbines, calibration equipment, etc.).