Biden Decries Russian Corruption During Visit

Wall Street Journal

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told a university audience here Thursday that “only bold and genuine change” on corruption, the rule of law and democracy in Russia will guarantee improved economic relations between the former Cold War superpowers.

Speaking at Moscow State University on a weeklong European swing, he addressed what he called impediments to business investment, citing the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who was arrested and died in custody in 2009 after accusing the police of corruption; demonstrators who were beaten and detained last year while advocating for the right to peacefully assemble; and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oligarch whose second trial on new charges of embezzlement and money laundering was clouded with allegations of misconduct.

In his visit, Mr. Biden set out to build on what U.S. and Russian leaders have said has been a successful “reset” of U.S.-Russian relations over the past two years. With the two nations on more solid ground, Mr. Biden moved on from building blocks such as international security cooperation to matters closer to home and more politically sensitive: domestic economic growth in both countries and political reform in Russia.

“Some of you may say, well, how can you say those things out loud, Mr. Vice President, and expect to have a better relationship? They’re necessary to have a good relationship,” Mr. Biden said, eliciting the only midspeech applause from the audience.

With a backdrop of youth-led uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, he urged “all of you students, don’t compromise on the basic elements of democracy.”

The tough message came with praise for advances in U.S.-Russian relations, a full-throated endorsement of Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization and a promise to press for the repeal of Cold War-era trade restrictions.

The speech was meant to launch the next stage of the reset, following the ratification of the New Start nuclear-arms-control accord and cooperative agreements on Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea. In keeping with the White House’s own focus on trade and jobs, Mr. Biden said advances in security cooperation must be followed by progress on trade and economic cooperation.

But, he added, “Economic modernization and political modernization go hand-in-hand. You don’t get one without the other.…Courts must be empowered to uphold the rule of law and protect those playing by the rules. Nongovernmental watchdogs should be applauded as patriots, not traitors. Journalists must be able to publish without fear of retribution.…And viable opposition—and public parties that are able to compete is also essential.”

Administration officials say the lack of defined relations between the two countries toward the end of the Bush administration left Moscow free to pursue interests damaging to the U.S., such as missile sales to Tehran, the shut-off of natural-gas pipelines to Ukraine, and the military invasion of Georgia.

The purpose of the concerted effort to repair ties was to make U.S.-Russian relations more important than anything Russia could gain from such actions, Obama administration officials say. To further that, political ties must be followed by closer economic bonds.

On Wednesday, Mr. Biden presided over the final signing of a $2 billion purchase of Boeing 777 airliners by Russian airline Aeroflot and a roundtable discussion with U.S. and Russian business leaders.

Klaus Kleinfeld, chief executive of Alcoa Inc., said in an interview that Mr. Biden was one of several people at the closed-door roundtable who spoke of the perception of corruption and lapses in the rule of law as impediments to business investment. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov pledged reform. At a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Mr. Biden brought up Mr. Khodorkovsky and the lack of truly competitive elections, administration officials here said.

“It’s a little too early to tell whether this really will work,” Mr. Kleinfeld said of the push for reform. “But it is very clear it is high on the agenda.”

Mr. Biden told Mr. Medvedev on Wednesday and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Thursday that the U.S. would press hard for Russia’s accession to the WTO and the repeal of the so-called Jackson-Vanik amendment, passed in 1974 to deny “most favored nation” trade status to the Soviet Union as a way to pressure the communist government to allow more Jewish emigration.

But with both men, he “laid out the landscape in Congress” that is holding those efforts back, an administration official said. Some U.S. lawmakers are objecting to how Russia enforces intellectual-property law. Others are looking at impediments to U.S. meat imports. Others are pressing for democratic and human-rights reforms, and stronger assurances against threats to Russia’s neighbors in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

In meetings Thursday, human-rights activists and political opposition leaders encouraged Mr. Biden to speak out.

Opposition leaders spent an hour and a half explaining how the Kremlin controls elections and the media to maintain its political grip, according to participants. “He understands the situation in Russia much better now,” said Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the participants.

Mr. Ryzhkov and his colleagues called for repealing Jackson-Vanik but replacing it with “personal sanctions”—travel and other restrictions—against Russian officials implicated in human-rights and other violations. “I told him you imposed sanctions on Lukashenko and Gadhafi—Putin does the same things in effect,” said Mr. Ryzhkov.

U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.) is pushing legislation that would ban visas and freeze assets of 60 Russian officials alleged to be involved in the death of Mr. Magnitsky, legislation that senior administration officials pointedly didn’t oppose.

“We purposely mentioned Magnitisky to show we are not in an argument with Sen. Cardin on this,” one senior administration official said. “We’re not defending things that we find to be an erosion of democracy and human rights.”

U.S. failures to follow through on previous pledges to repeal Jackson-Vanik are often cited by Russian officials as evidence of Washington’s bad faith. Mr. Medvedev raised the issue in his meeting with Mr. Biden on Wednesday.

“Russians can make an impact by that they do in the coming months,” one senior administration official said.

The activists welcomed the attention, noting that they rarely enjoy similar access to Kremlin officials to raise their concerns.

“We can’t always be running to Uncle Sam to complain about how bad our Uncle Volodya is,” said Svetlana Gannushkina of Memorial, referring to Mr. Putin by his nickname.

Mr. Biden gave a medal to Yelena Chirikova, an environmental activist who has led a so-far-unsuccessful effort to have a planned highway outside Moscow rerouted around a forest. She asked him to raise her issue again with Mr. Putin. Citing “a worsening of the situation with civil society here,” Ms. Chirikova called on the U.S. to be “much harsher” with the Kremlin on issues of democratic freedoms. She said the U.S. should back up its concerns about corruption in Russia by banning visas for bureaucrats suspected of graft.

“The system is completely corrupt and our American friends probably haven’t figured that out yet,” she said. “Both Putin and Medvedev are part of that system.”

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