Ben Cardin

I introduced the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act as a way of saying that we will hold abusers accountable even if their own country does not.

You have found the Achilles hill of the Putin regime. They rape, torture and kill with impunity and keep their ill-gotten gains in the West.

If Putin hates this so much, we're sure that there are a lot of other dictators who would hate this as well.

If Putin is so mad about this, probably there will be some other dictators that would not like it as well

We need to consider how we deal with that.

We imposed sanctions on the individual.

We are going to do something about this.

Why do we not widen this piece of legislation out so it includes all human rights abusers in Russia?

It was originally a piece of legislation targeting the people who killed Sergei Magnitsky.

There is no reason why somebody should be sanctioned in America and not in Europe or not in the U.K.

Thank you very much for holding this hearing on the implementation of Global Magnitsky sanctions.

Freedom House is pleased to support the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act, led by Chairman Cardin.

The Act has significantly advanced accountability for human rights violations around the world.

I thank Chairman Cardin and Ranking Member Risch for inviting me to testify at today's hearing.

There has been a significant slowdown in the use of Global Magnitsky sanctions in recent years.

Nowhere has this been more on display than what has occurred in Hong Kong in recent years as the passage of the National Security Law and entry into force of Article 23 destroyed what remains of Hong Kong's democracy.

Please ensure that they safeguard civil society and philanthropy, both internationally and at home.

The use of defamation laws, foreign agent registration laws, and anti-NGO laws to silence free speech is nothing new.

As if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Technology be discharged of S. Res. 750 and the Senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions: S. Res…

I appreciate that, and I support everything you just said, but it still begs the question that without much complaint Azerbaijan is now occupying part of Armenia--strategic part of Armenia--and there has been no real protest about their…

I support that, but whether we will ever get to that point, my concern is it is going to be years down the road, and we are going to have another Moldova and another Georgia.

Which Russia is trying to make sure does not happen.

I think it is absolutely essential that we be very clear that Maduro was not elected as president of Venezuela.

We think the United States has to work with our partners in South America to make it clear that that was not an election where Maduro won.