Putin’s Rise to Power Through Terror, 25 Years On – Lessons for the Ukraine War

PRESS CONFERENCE
Monday, September 23 at 3:30PM
National Press Club
First Amendment Lounge (13th Floor)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Register here for a press conference of leading experts urging Congress to designate Russia a “state sponsor of terror” for its war in Ukraine, on the 25th anniversary of the Moscow bombings that first brought Vladimir Putin to power.

Hosted by DC-based nonprofit The Remembrance Society, the conference will feature live remarks by historian and Vice Chairman of The Remembrance Society David Satter, Russian dissident and former Moscow FSB chief Evgeny Savostiyanov, former State Duma deputy Arkady Yankovsky, and human rights leader Katrina Lantos Swett, who will link Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to a chain of state violence stretching back a quarter-century.

The Russian apartment bombings in September 1999 in Moscow, Buinaksk, and Volgodonsk killed 300 people and injured 1,000, sparking a climate of fear that helped boost public support for Russia’s war in Chechnya and propel Putin to the presidency. Yet there is overwhelming evidence that the bombings were in fact carried out by Russia’s own security service, and hence that Putin rose to power through state violence against his own people — and hopes to keep it through similar tactics in Ukraine.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its 32nd month, bills are pending consideration in the US House and Senate to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. House bill H.R.3979 would prohibit any defense exports and foreign aid flows to the country. Senate bill S. 4625 enumerates the many reasons why the state sponsor designation is justified. This follows the passage last Congress of Senate Resolution 623, which called for the State Department to make this designation, but did not require it.

Helsinki Commission Chairman Congressman Joe Wilson stated in his extension of Congressional remarks on June 13, 2024, “Author, professor, and journalist David Satter, a former Financial Times Moscow correspondent and former senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, has documented the basis of overwhelming evidence, the September 1999 apartment bombings which brought Putin to power were carried out by the Russian security services, and that the Putin regime has been illegitimate since the first day of his accession to power.”

Grasping this issue is vital to Americans’ understanding of a key foreign adversary in an election year. Similarities between the 1999 bombing and 2022 invasion — acts of terror designed to boost Putin’s domestic popularity — help demonstrate the regime’s nature as a threat to democracy, peace, and freedom worldwide, strengthening the case for defending Ukraine. Broadcasting the truth about the bombings is also crucial to reaching Russian citizens, whose rising awareness of Putin’s record has fed domestic pressure to end the war.

To this end, the Russia experts will discuss the 25th anniversary of the bombings, their significance, the evidence for state involvement, and lessons for the present day.

Please direct any media inquiries to [email protected] or (202) 355-9422.

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SOURCE The Remembrance Society