In Trade Deal With Russia, U.S. Plans Sanctions for Human Rights Abuses
In the two decades since the end of the cold war, the United States has extended its economic reach to the far corners of the old Communist world, establishing full-fledged trade ties with the likes of Ukraine, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Even still-Communist nations like China and Vietnam have been granted full trading status. But not Russia.
That seems about to change. For the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, a bipartisan coalition in Congress has agreed to normalize trade relations with Russia, the onetime adversary in the long struggle between capitalism and communism. But at a time of renewed tension with Moscow, lawmakers have decided to grant the status with one large caveat — that Russian officials be held responsible for human rights abuses.
Legislation moving through the House and Senate with support from both parties would lift restrictions imposed in the 1970s under the so-called Jackson-Vanik law, permanently establishing normal trade relations with Russia, one of just a handful of nations left in the world still denied them. In doing so, Congress would potentially double Russian-American trade and fulfill a goal that eluded Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Yet in imposing sanctions for human rights violations, lawmakers are defying not just the Kremlin of Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, but also President Obama, who while embracing the normalization of trade lobbied against mixing the issues. In effect, foreign policy experts said, the legislation represents a judgment by Congress that in his effort to repair relations with Moscow, Mr. Obama has not paid enough attention to freedom and democracy.
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U.S., Russia try to reset and retrench relations, but Magnitsky bill threatens process
The visit of a multimillionaire Russian senator to the United States last week was difficult, upbeat and contradictory — the very image of the reset-retrench relationship between the two countries.
Vitaly Malkin was in Washington to confront Congress over the Magnitsky bill, which would put Russians connected with human rights abuses on a blacklist, denying them U.S. visas and freezing their assets.
The bill has infuriated Russian officials, and they speak about it often and with vehemence. “We really don’t want the U.S. Congress to adopt this bill, which has the potential to deteriorate U.S.-Russia relations for years, or even for decades, to come,” Malkin said at a news conference last Wednesday.
But the day before found him at the Open World office at the Library of Congress, posing for a friendly photo with James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress, and discussing his commitment of more than $1 million to the U.S. government-run Open World program. Malkin’s money helps send prospective leaders from his constituency on exchanges to the United States to learn about good governance, rule of law and other highlights of democracy.
While Malkin and three colleagues from the upper house of parliament were in the United States, Russia’s lower house was adopting a law requiring non-governmental organizations that accept foreign money and engage in election monitoring, human rights advocacy and corruption fighting to declare themselves as foreign agents.
Russian activists say the foreign agent law, which the upper house, the Federation Council, is expected to rubber-stamp this week, was pushed along in retaliation for the Magnitsky bill.
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Last-ditch effort backfires on Magnitsky
Russian lawmakers urged Congress last week to reconsider the Magnitsky bill, but so far have gotten the opposite result. If passed, the Magnitsky bill could derail US-Russian relations for years Russian Senators said.
Several members of Russia’s Senate, called the Federation Council, made a rare appearance in Washington, D.C., this past week in a last-ditch effort to convince their American peers to reconsider the controversial Magnitsky Bill—a piece of legislation that Moscow considers to be explicit interference in the internal affairs of the country.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign affairs has repeatedly warned Washington about the consequences of this legislation. The Magnitsky Bill sanctions a number of the Russian officials that the U.S. Congress has deemed responsible for or are connected to the case.
In 2008, Sergei Magnitsky said that he had uncovered a scheme that top officials from Russia’s Interior Ministry and other agencies had created a plan to defraud the Russian government. Two of the officials turned around and implicated him for tax evasion on behalf of his client, the investment firm Hermitage Capital headed by William Browder, then a longtime cheerleader for President Vladimir Putin.
Magnitsky died after a year in pre-trial detention, during which his health deteriorated dramatically; Russian investigators found he had been beaten while in prison. While the Russian government has stressed that any human rights investigations should be conducted internally, Browder has headed an international investigation of his own and become one of Putin’s fiercest critics.
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Magnistkiy’s mother demands explanations about senators’ US visit
The mother of Hermitage Capital legal consultant Sergey Magnitskiy, who died in pre-trial detention in Moscow, has accused Federation Council members who visited Washington last week of defaming her son.
According to a Hermitage Capital press release received by Interfax on Monday [16 June], Natalya Magnitskaya has written an open letter to Federation Council chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko “demanding an objective assessment of the defamation campaign against the slain lawyer, executed by four Russian senators last week in Washington who were trying to stop the adoption of the Magnitskiy law by US Congress where the bill will be discussed this Wednesday, 18 July, at the Senate finance committee”.
“I believe that this attempt to posthumously besmirch the good name of my son looks shameful and is not worthy of the high title of a people’s representative. Abusing their status, these people permitted themselves to insult the memory of my son. They used the fact that my son is not able to defend himself,” the fund’s press service quoted the text of the letter as saying.
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The Sergei Magnitsky bill
When Congress takes the lead on foreign policy the result is not usually optimal. Some worry that America’s first branch of government is about to add to its dubious record with passage of the Magnitsky bill – named after the Russian lawyer who died in a Moscow jail in 2009 after having exposed massive corruption.
There are reasons to worry Congress may be overreaching. But the bill should not be discarded. Russia may be an indispensable, if frequently obstructive, international partner. But at home its government sometimes behaves like a criminal enterprise. The treatment of Sergei Magnitsky is one such instance.
There are two main objections to the bill in its latest form. Neither is insuperable. The first concerns the need to accommodate Russia’s recent entry into the World Trade Organisation, which is a White House priority in what remains of this Congress. In order to comply with WTO rules, the US has to scrap the 1974 Jackson-Vanik law, which linked the Soviet Union’s trade access to human rights benchmarks, notably its treatment of Jewish “refuseniks”. The law lost its purpose after the USSR’s collapse in 1991.
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U.S. Congressmen Unmoved By Russian Visit To Protest Magnitsky Bill
U.S. congressmen appear to be unmoved following the visit of a Russian delegation to Washington this week aimed at protesting pending U.S. sanctions over the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Describing the Russian initiative as “too late,” the congressmen told RFE/RL that they expected the legislation to be signed into law. The move would deny visas to dozens of Russian officials implicated in Magnitsky’s death and also freeze any U.S. assets they may hold.
Senator Roger Wicker (Republican-Mississippi) is a member of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, where the Magnitsky legislation was first initiated.
“The reports about this tragedy are not isolated,” he said. “There have been two independent reports inside Russia that indicated this was a violation of Mr. Magnitsky’s rights and an abusive process.
“So it’s going to be very difficult, I think, for one packet of information provided by a group of Russian [lawmakers] to overcome the huge body of information.”
Wicker was one of several U.S. lawmakers who met with Aleksei Chernyshev, Vitaly Malkin, Aleksandr Savenkov, and Valery Shnyakin — all members of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council.
The delegation was in the U.S. capital to present the findings of a “preliminary parliamentary investigation” into the case of the deceased lawyer.
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Freedom House – The Magnitsky Files
The Magnitsky Files
Freedom House President David Kramer on July 12 called for justice in the case of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was killed in Russian detention in 2009, at an event featuring Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) and a screening of the documentary “The Magnitsky Files: Organized Crime Inside the Russian Government.” Freedom House has pushed the U.S. to adopt the Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act, which has received widespread bipartisan support in Congress.
Listen to an interview with David J. Kramer about the Magnitsky Bill here. займ онлайн на карту без отказа unshaven girl female wrestling https://zp-pdl.com/emergency-payday-loans.php https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php займ онлайн
Baucus Announces Markup of Jobs Bill Establishing Permanent Normal Trade Relations with Russia
US Senate Committee on Finance
With Russia Joining the WTO, Finance Chairman’s Mark Will Enable U.S. Businesses to Capitalize on Increased Market Access.
Washington, DC – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) today released his Chairman’s Mark of a bill to establish permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Russia and remove Russia from the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment, which will enable U.S. businesses to capitalize on Russia’s growing market. Baucus also scheduled a markup to take place at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 18,in Room 215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Baucus’s bill would support and create thousands of U.S. jobs across every sector of the American economy, including manufacturing, agriculture and services, by helping double U.S. exports to Russia within five years.
“Increasing our exports to Russia will help create new jobs and give America’s economy the shot in the arm it needs. Our exports to Russia will double within the next five years if we pass PNTR soon, which will mean thousands of jobs supported or created across the country. And this economic boost will come at no cost to us whatsoever. We will not have to change one single tariff or trade law,” Baucus said. “Russia is joining the WTO no matter what Congress does – their legislature has already voted and put the wheels in motion – so we need to act soon. My bill will put American businesses, farmers, ranchers and workers in a position to succeed and grow, and that’s exactly what our economy and workers need.”
Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, recently approved an agreement to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, is expected to take up the measure soon, after which Russia will officially join the WTO 30 days later. As part of the “accession” process, as it is known, Russia will lower tariffs and increase market access for foreign businesses from countries with which it has permanent normal trade relations. Congress must pass legislation establishing PNTR by the time Russia joins the WTO for U.S. businesses to see the full economic benefits of the deal.
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Russian Senate Speaker Predicts Drop In Protest Moods, Slams Magnitskiy Bill
JRL
The speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, has forecast a diminishment of protests in the country for lack of any substantive socio-economic precursors, as well as a compelling programme from opposition leaders. She also doubted that the US Magnitskiy bill would achieve anything constructive and dismissed speculations that the senator-mum of a prominent opposition leader was being persecuted for her daughter’s civic activity. She made her comments in an interview with the Interfax news agency, which published excerpts in separate reports on 12 July. The full text of the interview will be published on the agency’s website at www.interfax.ru.
On protests and opposition leaders
Matviyenko said that she doubted that the existing opposition leaders had the moral credentials to champion a protest movement.
“I think that people who are vying for opposition leadership roles have to be completely honest and clear from the point of view of reputation. Only this gives a moral right to not only lead people, but also to criticize the authorities,” she said.
To this end, she supposed that “judging by everything, today’s oppositionists have only a handful of truly like-minded associates. No-one is stopping them from creating a party or offering their programme for the development of the country, but all of their vigorous activity doesn’t spread past Sadovoye koltso (ring road in central Moscow).”
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To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below
- Sergei Magnitsky
- Why was Sergei Magnitsky arrested?
- Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and death in prison
- President’s investigation sabotaged and going nowhere
- The corrupt officers attempt to arrest 8 lawyers
- Past crimes committed by the same corrupt officers
- Petitions requesting a real investigation into Magnitsky's death
- Worldwide reaction, calls to punish those responsible for corruption and murder
- Complaints against Lt.Col. Kuznetsov
- Complaints against Major Karpov
- Cover up
- Press about Magnitsky
- Bloggers about Magnitsky
- Corrupt officers:
- Sign petition
- Citizen investigator
- Join Justice for Magnitsky group on Facebook
- Contact us
- Sergei Magnitsky
