Posts Tagged ‘ariel cohen’
Russia: Kerry’s Chilly Kremlin Reception
This past Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met President Vladimir Putin of Russia in the Kremlin.
Kerry was seeking to repair frayed ties with Russia and obtain Moscow’s assistance with a settlement in Syria. The U.S. and its allies hope to put an end to the civil war, and the Obama Administration wants Russia to help.
Yet Putin gave Kerry the cold shoulder, and Russia’s help in Syria is unlikely. Russia does not want the West and its Gulf allies to topple the Assad regime. Putin believes Russia got a black eye when it abstained in the United Nations Security Council vote that toppled Muammar Qadhafi. However, Kerry agreed to a peace conference on Syria, which will take place in Geneva—with no preconditions, such as Assad’s departure.
This conference is an achievement for Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who will have a photo-op with Kerry; an achievement for Russia, which will appear as Washington’s equal in the international arena; and an achievement for Kerry, who will boast that he got the parties around the table.
The Obama Administration recognizes that there are problems with its Syria policy, where it finds itself stuck between the repressive Assad regime and Sunni extremists, including al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabha al-Nusrah. However, by agreeing to a Geneva conference with Russian co-sponsorship, Obama gained nothing while providing Moscow with a diplomatic advantage.
Kerry’s meeting with Putin was nightmarish. He was kept waiting for three hours for the master of the Kremlin, contrary to diplomatic protocol. Putin then appeared disinterested, fidgeting with his pen throughout the meeting.
Read More →
Facebook
Twitter
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
del.icio.us
Google Bookmarks
Yahoo! Buzz
Tumblr
StumbleUpon
FriendFeed
NewsVine
Digg
President Obama Should Uphold the Magnitsky Act’s Legislative Intent
The Foundry – Heritage Foundation
Next week, the Obama Administration faces an important foreign policy decision in U.S. relations with Russia—how to champion human rights and the rule of law. The State Department is trying to avoid a gust of chilling wind from Moscow.
However, the last thing the Administration should do is show weakness to Moscow or subvert the will of Congress as stipulated in the recent Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 signed by President Obama last December.
Under the Magnitsky Act, the State Department is supposed to submit a list of corrupt Russian officials who are gross violators of human rights. The U.S. will then ban these violators’ travel to the U.S. and freeze any assets they hold in American banks. The State Department has until April 13 to compile such a list for implementation.
The Magnitsky Act’s intent is to name and shame the corrupt officials responsible for whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky’s brutal death in 2009 and send a message that the U.S. takes human rights violations in Russia seriously.
However, one of the law’s co-sponsors doubts Obama’s resolve to implement the list. Representative Jim McGovern (D–MA) created his own list of officials as he fears for how the Magnitsky Act will be enforced and whether the Administration’s list will have enough teeth. McGovern’s list includes 280 names, including Yuri Chaika, the Prosecutor General of Russia who closed the investigation into Magintsky’s death; the head of the Russian Investigative Committee; and numerous secret policy and law enforcement officials involved in this and other cases.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Russian “Grandma of Human Rights” Nominated for Nobel Prize
This week, Senator Benjamin Cardin (D–MD) nominated the “grandma” of the Russian human rights movement, Lyudmila Alekseeva, for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.
Cardin’s nomination of the veteran of the dissident movement affirms the United States’ support for human rights activists in Russia and gives this “peacemaker” the recognition she deserves.
Alekseeva was born in 1927 in the Crimea and studied history at the prestigious Moscow State University. During her time there, Alekseeva fell in with the dissident crowd. By the 1960s, she protested the Communist Party’s crackdown on dissident writers and the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. She continued to work for human rights in the Soviet Union and in 1976 was one of the founding members of the Moscow Helsinki Group.
The group, named after its support of the 1975 Helsinki Accords, which the Soviet Union signed, was founded in the apartment of dissident physicist and human rights leader Andrei Sakharov.
Only a year after she helped found the group, Alekseeva, like many other dissidents, was exiled from the USSR. She moved to the U.S. and kept up her work promoting human rights. She was frequently published and often appeared on Radio Liberty and Voice of America, U.S. government-funded stations that broadcasted to the Soviet Union.
Two years after the fall of communism, Alekseeva returned to Russia and in 1996 became chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a human rights nongovernmental organization (NGO).
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Will the Magnitsky Act Apply to Ukraine?
November 16 marked the third anniversary of Sergey Magnitsky’s death in a Russian jail. The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee marked the occasion by passing the Magnitsky Bill. It now has moved on to the Senate for approval—the next step on its way to becoming law.
Provided the language Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) have written survives the legislation process, it is possible that the Magnitsky Act would apply to Ukraine. It will be up to the President and the State Department to decide, who, if anyone, may end up on a “Magnitsky List”.
The Magnitsky Act seeks “to impose sanctions on persons responsible for the detention, abuse, or death of Sergei Magnitsky, and for other gross violations of human rights in the Russian Federation, and for other purposes.” Individuals guilty of massive human rights violations would be refused visas, and their assets within the preview of the U.S. government would be frozen.
Ukraine’s treatment of former Premier Yulia Tymoshenko and ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, as well as of other political prisoners, may come under “other purposes” language, applicable to countries beyond Russia.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Interview With Ariel Cohen: Russia’s Agenda Creates Unnecessary Friction With U.S
Following his reelection, U.S. President Barack Obama now faces the task of revitalizing U.S.-Russian relations. Ties between Washington and Moscow have seemed to stagnate somewhat following the reset of 2009-2010 and the return to the Kremlin of Vladimir Putin.
RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson spoke recently with Ariel Cohen, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Cohen has worked as a consultant to the U.S. executive branch and the private sector on issues related to Russia and the former Soviet Union. He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and co-author of the 2005 book “Eurasia in Balance: The U.S. and the Regional Power Shift.”
RFE/RL: Where do U.S-Russian relations stand at the moment and what are the most likely points of conflict?
Ariel Cohen: The Russians have an agenda that brings them into friction with the United States. First, it is Syria, where they do not want the [Bashar al-]Assad regime to fall. They, together with the Iranians and the Chinese, have blocked any diplomatic resolution and are still providing weapons to the Syrian regime. The Russians are setting themselves up for a fall because the minority Alawite regime cannot survive against the onslaught of the Sunni majority and the international support the Sunni fighters receive, especially from other Sunni countries in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, etc.
The second area of disagreement is missile defense and the U.S. plans to build a ballistic-missile defense in Europe, primarily aimed against Iran and possibly other rogue players — but not against Russia at this moment. Russia has a massive arsenal that can overwhelm any missile-defense arrangement that we can predict in the future. And, finally, I would say that the second Obama administration will focus on domestic priorities. We have very significant economic, fiscal issues to resolve and the president will not have that time to deal with the Russian agenda.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Magnitsky Act Promises to Punish Human Rights Abuse, Open Trade
Last Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that included language—called the Magnitsky Act—that for the first time punishes Russian officials implicated in serious human rights abuses.
The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority—365 to 43—demonstrating strong bipartisan support. The Senate will vote on the Magnitsky Act and the underlying bill during the lame-duck session after the Thanksgiving recess.
The Magnitsky Act is named after the late Moscow lawyer, accountant, and whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, who in 2009 accused Russian police and tax officials of embezzling $230 million from the Russian treasury. For his “crime” of holding government accountable, Magnitsky was jailed, tortured, denied medical care, and finally beaten to death in his prison cell.
Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to the Magnitsky case as a “tragedy” while vehemently opposing the U.S. legislation named after the whistleblower. Some perpetrators of the Magnitsky persecution even received medals and promotions.
Instead of conducting a proper investigation to bring those responsible for Magnitsky’s death to justice, the Kremlin has threatened to retaliate, accusing the U.S. of meddling in Russia’s internal affairs.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Congressional Hearing Highlights the Need to Pass Magnitsky, PNTR to Russia
Yesterday and today, the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee held hearings on Russia’s abysmal human rights record and its looming accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The Obama Administration wants Congress to provide permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Russia and scrap the 1974 Cold War–era Jackson–Vanik amendment, which denied Russia most-favored-nation status in trade.
The Administration, represented by Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and International Trade Representative Ronald Kirk, argued that if Congress does not waive Jackson–Vanik for Russia,U.S.firms will be put at a disadvantage vis-à-vis everyone else when Russia enters the WTO this August.
Private-sector witnesses attending the House hearing included Caterpillar’s CEO Doug Oberhelman, Michigan Farm Bureau president Wayne Wood, president of Argus Ltd. Michael Rae, and senior vice president of Medtronics James P. Mackin.
Russia is one of the world’s largest economies. The President’s Export Council estimates that the currently meager U.S.exports to Russia could increase when Russia joins the WTO. As Burns said:
Congress has a choice: it can extend Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) to Russia, giving American exporters and workers a level the [sic] playing field in one of the fastest growing markets in the world; or it can keep Jackson-Vanik in place, preventing American companies from reaping the benefits of an unprecedented opportunity to boost trade in a large and growing market.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Russia, PNTR, and Human Rights
Progress on the ability of U.S. firms to take advantage of new business opportunities when Russia joins the World Trade Organization (WTO) took a step forward yesterday when Senate leaders acknowledged that legislation to promote human rights will be a condition needed for permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to move forward, too.
Senators Max Baucus (D–MT), John McCain (R–AZ), John Thune (R–SD) and John Kerry (D–MA) introduced legislation to exempt Russia from the Cold War–era Jackson–Vanik Amendment restrictions, passed in 1974, that no longer effectively promote human rights.
Approval of this legislation will allow U.S. companies to benefit from trade concessions that Russia made in order to join the WTO. Otherwise, American firms attempting to do business in Russia will be placed at a disadvantage in comparison with their foreign competitors.
McCain joined others in calling for passage of the bipartisan Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, introduced by Senator Ben Cardin (D–MD) and McCain, to accompany Jackson–Vanik’s repeal. This legislation would impose penalties on officials from Russia and elsewhere who are responsible for gross violations of human rights. Ignoring legitimate human rights concerns would threaten PNTR’s prospects.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
The Magnitsky Act: The Moment of Truth
This Thursday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will put the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act up for a vote. The bill seeks “to impose sanctions on persons responsible for the detention, abuse, or death of Sergei Magnitsky, and for other gross violations of human rights in the Russian Federation, and for other purposes.”
This past May, Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak threatened to retaliate if the Magnitsky bill becomes law. Instead, the Kremlin should have acknowledged its failure to save a person’s life, conducted proper investigation, and thanked American lawmakers for trying to step in where Russian law enforcement failed so abysmally.
The death of Sergei Magnitsky in a Russian prison is a tragedy and demonstration of rampant corruption in the Russian state’s highest echelons. But it is also a symptom of graft and rampant crime blocking normal trade relations between the U.S. and Russia.
Sergei Magnitsky was a 37-year-old attorney and accountant who worked for Hermitage, then-the largest Western private equity fund in Russia. In the course of his work, he uncovered a giant corruption scheme that involved embezzlements of $230 million from the Russian Treasury by law enforcement and tax officials. After making accusations, he was arrested on fabricated tax evasion and tax fraud charges.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
