WASHINGTON – Senators Ruben Gallego, Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called on the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Russian officials under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, citing reports that Russia is using human trafficking and forced labor to support its war in Ukraine.

“We write to urge the Department of the Treasury and the Department of State to promptly employ authorities under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and Executive Order 13818 to designate and sanction Russian individuals and entities responsible for increasingly common illicit schemes to lure foreign nationals to the Russian Federation under false pretenses and subsequently subject them to coercive military conscription or forced labor in support of Russia’s war effort, including manufacturing drones and other critical military material,” the Senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Russia recruits foreign nationals from areas where unemployment is high with promises of civilian jobs and forces them to the front lines after minimal military training. Russia’s “Alabuga Start” program, which was sanctioned in 2024, recruits women from around the world with promises of full-time jobs and professional training, only to force participants into manufacturing jobs helping build drones used to bomb Ukrainian cities.  

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act authorizes the President to impose sanctions on foreign persons responsible for or complicit in “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” Executive Order 13818, issued on December 20, 2017, implements and expands this authority.  

“Illicit recruitment followed by forced conscription or labor constitutes human trafficking and a violation of human rights, squarely within the conduct that Magnitsky sanctions are designed to address,” the Senators continued. “Because Ukraine’s brave resistance on the battlefield has kept Russia from claiming victory, Russia has turned to even crueler tactics to bolster its defense industrial base. Using existing sanctions authorities against Russia to the maximum extent possible can help deal a decisive blow to Putin’s floundering campaign.”

Read the full letter HERE.