Posts Tagged ‘boston globe’
As Russia harms human rights, other democracies must step in
THE EMBEZZLEMENT case against Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was so outlandish that even calling it a show trial was too generous. Navalny — anticorruption activist and candidate for mayor of Moscow — wasn’t allowed to present any witnesses. The judge, Sergei Blinov, has reportedly never found a defendant “not guilty” in his career. The abnormally harsh five-year sentence handed down Thursday came as a shock, and the judge’s decision to release Navalny on appeal after protests in several cities did not dispel that sentiment.
Navalny’s punishment for criticizing Putin follows another bizarre legal case: the recent posthumous conviction of Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in prison after exposing massive government tax fraud. For the Russian government, it wasn’t enough to arrest Magnitsky for blowing the whistle, or to engineer his death — as many suspect. Authorities took the extraordinary step of convicting him from the grave of the very crimes he sought to expose.
These cases, along with yet another investigation of financier-turned-Kremlin-critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who has already spent a decade in prison, signal the rapid deterioration of what freedom was left in Russia. They also highlight the need for a concerted effort by major democracies to raise pressure on Russia without fully alienating its leadership.
Now there is an effort underway to beef up the Magnitsky Act, passed last year in the wake of his death, which sanctions Russian officials believed to be linked to his case. Currently, 18 midlevel Russian bureaucrats have been barred from entering the United States. Any assets they have on US soil will be seized. US Representative James P. McGovern, the Worcester Democrat who championed the act, wants to expand the list of names to include higher-ranking Russian officials. “We know there are people close to Putin who are responsible for a lot of these abuses,” McGovern says. “The question is: Do human rights matter? If they do, we can’t be silent.”
Read More →
Facebook
Twitter
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
del.icio.us
Google Bookmarks
Yahoo! Buzz
Tumblr
StumbleUpon
FriendFeed
NewsVine
Digg
McGovern, Kerry tackle the Cold War
When this nation’s founders devised a national legislature, they created two chambers: the House and Senate. Representatives from local jurisdictions would advance more parochial needs; senators would focus on broader strategic issues. The notion of internal checks and balances within the legislative branch itself helped to seal ratification of the Constitution; the House and Senate would work together as well as at cross-purposes.
What wasn’t likely envisioned was that, hundreds of years later, one senator and one congressman from an original colony would serve as counterweights in a debate that involved the Cold War, Jewish immigration, multibillion-dollar companies, and a Russian lawyer who died in his jail cell. Just a few miles apart geographically, with motivations reflecting their conscience as well as status, Massachusetts’ Senator John Kerry and Representative Jim McGovern are key actors in an episode that is as much about constitutional architecture as it is modern day realpolitik.
A vote expected in the Senate on Thursday would grant normalized trade relations with Russia and finally end the Cold War. The bill, after last month’s similar vote in the House, would revoke the 1974 ban, known as Jackson-Vanik, that penalized US-Russian economic investments because of the Soviet Union’s prohibition on emigration for Jews. Times have changed, as have global markets, and the expected Senate approval would create a permanent normal trade relationship with Russia. All this activity is in response to Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization last August, essentially setting ground rules for foreign access to Russian industries and lowering any import tariffs; the United States doesn’t want to be left behind.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Get tougher with Vladimir Putin
Boston Globe
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to forego the G8 summit this weekend at Camp David is a noteworthy snub that merits a stiff response. Putin’s absence has engendered a lot of heated speculation. Is Putin honestly, as he alleges, too busy? Or is it a combination of domestic unrest, a potential Kremlin power struggle, and his annoyance at the United States for raising its displeasure about the violence against recent demonstrations that has kept him away?
Whatever the reason, Putin has made clear that his ambitions are not, as the Obama Administration has hoped for too long, to move towards an historic and sweeping nuclear reduction accord. This fact should now free the Obama Administration from the need to mute its criticisms of Putin’s anti-democratic tendencies and disrespect for human rights. The G8 was one snub too many.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Taking on Russia: A global financier fights back after a lawyer’s suspicious death in prison
IF YOU think you know what the 1 percent is like, then you haven’t met Bill Browder, the founder of Hermitage Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar investment firm. His personal worth is estimated to be around $100 million. His grandfather was the head of the American Communist party, and when Russian markets opened, Browder seemed to return the favor by exporting capitalism there. Hermitage became the largest investment fund in Russia.
But his career took an unexpected turn. He’s now on a different kind of mission – to pass legislation that would deprive human-rights violators of the things they love: legitimacy, travel, Western goods, and taking their kids to Disneyland. It’s a mission that should please the US government, too.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
