Please Co-Sign Letters to Protect Anti-Putin Russian Activists

As your constituent and someone who is deeply concerned about the war in Ukraine and the resistance to the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, I am writing to ask you to co-sign letters initiated by Rep. Keating and Rep. Spanberger to various U.S. tech and credit card CEOs, urging them to remove restrictions on Russian activists, who are working against the Putin regime in disseminating important information to the Russian public. Specifically, we are sending letters to Alphabet, Meta, MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, Slack, and Sectigo. Various NGOs and experts have verified that the operations of Russian democracy activities are hindered by these companies because they are applying blanket regulations related to Russia. For example, U.S. companies have halted vital monetary transactions and denied services to Russian democracy activists, human rights advocates, and journalists, without exemptions for Russian democracy forces and despite clear exemptions to sanctions policy under Office of Foreign Asset Control General License #27 and #25A. All of the letters call for the various companies to: • Provide an explanation of what the company is doing to ensure democracy groups have access to your service.  • Allow NGOs working to defend democracy in Russia to advertise on the company’s platform, including allowing the requisite monetary transactions. • Maintain a list of trusted democracy groups and activists. An initial list of trusted organizations is in each letter. • Conduct outreach to stay informed on how the company’s policies impact Russian civil society and improve responsiveness to civil society/activist groups that engage the Russian people. Russian pro-democracy activists are allies of the United States, NATO, and Ukraine against the brutal Putin regime. I’m asking you to add your signature to support Russian freedom fighters who inspire and engage other Russians to stand up to Putin.