; Whereas members of nongovernmental organizations, civil society, and independent media across the region covered by the OSCE continue to risk their safety to advance the principles enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act, often in the face of harassment and threats from their own governments who are OSCE participating States; Whereas the United States Congress contributed to advancing the aims of the Helsinki Final Act by creating the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe to monitor and encourage compliance with its principles and provisions; Whereas many countries continue to fall significantly short of implementing their OSCE commitments, particularly in the Human Dimension; Whereas the Russian Federation is responsible for the clear, gross, and uncorrected violation of all ten Principles of the Helsinki Final Act; Whereas, for many years, the Russian Federation has ignored its OSCE commitments related to the Human Dimension of comprehensive security by cracking down on civil society and independent media through harassment, intimidation, burdensome legal constraints, and violence, undermining the ability of its citizens to freely choose their leaders; Whereas Russia’s internal repression is directly related to its external aggression, including in Ukraine, Georgia, and Syria; Whereas the Government of the Russian Federation has interfered through information warfare and cyber-intrusions and otherwise engaged in deliberate and malicious efforts to undermine confidence in the democratic institutions and processes of other OSCE participating States; Whereas the first Principle recognizes the right of each participating State to be or not to be a party to bilateral or multilateral treaties including the right to be or not to be a party to treaties of alliance; they also have the right to neutrality ; Whereas the OSCE’s participating States bear primary responsibility for raising violations of the Helsinki Final Act and other OSCE documents