Eliot Engel: “For the purpose of closing. Mr. Speaker, first, I want to thank my friend, the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs…”

“For the purpose of closing. Mr. Speaker, first, I want to thank my friend, the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. McCaul. It has been a pleasure working closely with him on so many pieces of legislation. I know that the work will continue, and we will continue to keep in touch and make sure that we go the right way in trying to stop these human rights abuses all over the world. The number of political prisoners in Russia has increased by sixfold since the year 2015. This is what we have come to expect from Vladimir Putin's Russia: Blatant disregard for human rights and rule of law. The United States must stand firm against Russia's practice of politically motivated imprisonment and impose sanctions against anyone responsible for these human rights abuses. It is really important that the U.S. Congress stand up and do this. It is really important that we do it, regardless of political party. It is really important to send Putin a message that we are not going to sit idly by and allow him to do his bad work. He has interfered with our elections. He has tried again. He succeeded some of the time; he didn't succeed in other times. But we want him to stay away, and we want the people of Russia to have a government where they can feel free, not one where they feel the boot on their neck all the time.…”