WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2020) US lawmakers have passed a measure calling on the government to oppose Russia's alleged religious freedom violations in Crimea and urging the president to consider any such violation a basis for determining whether Russia may be designated as a country of particular concern for religious freedom.
"It is the policy of the United States to consider any alien who, while serving as an official of the government of Russia, was responsible for or directly carried out particularly severe violations of religious freedom in the sovereign territory of Ukraine that Russia illegally occupies or controls, including through non-state armed groups and illegal entities it commands and supports, to have committed particularly severe violations of religious freedom for purposes of applying section 212(a)(2)(G) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)(G)) with respect to any such alien," the document said on Wednesday.
The lawmakers said that in order to decide on whether to designate Russia as a nation of particular concern for religious freedom, US leaders should consider any particularly severe violation of religious freedom in Crimea.
Crimea, a Russian enclave, was transferred to Ukraine in 1954 by the then-Soviet Communist Party leader Nikita Khrushchev. In 2014, 96 percent of Crimea residents voted in a referendum in favor of rejoining Russia.
Ukraine, as well as the majority of Western countries, have refused to recognize the results of the referendum. Russia has insisted that the referendum was conducted in full compliance with international law and that it expressed in a highest democratic forum the will of the Crimean people to become part of Russia again.
