Posts Tagged ‘Cardin’
Russia Ambassador warns Congress over human rights bill
By Erik Wasson – 04/23/12
Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak on Monday warned Congress that there would be “significant reaction” in Moscow if members try to attach a human rights measure to one granting permanent normal trade relations to his country.
Kislyak told reporters that passage of the bill could “impair the ability” of the U.S. and Russia to work together.
Russia wants Congress to grant it permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) and the White House is pushing Congress to do so before Russia joins the World Trade Organization this year.
At this point, Russia will join the WTO regardless of what Congress does and if Congress does not act U.S. exporters to Russia will be hurt. Kislyak made clear Russia will deny new lower tariffs to U.S. companies if Congress does not grant PNTR, as it would be entitled to do under WTO rules.
Some in Congress want to use the occasion to press Russia on human rights and democratization, however.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) have introduced a bill that specifically addresses the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a whistleblower working for a London investment firm who died in suspicious circumstances while imprisoned by Russian authorities in November 2009.
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Updated Magnitsky Act Introduced in U.S. Congress
Sergei Magnitsky was a lawyer who represented Hermitage Capital Management – an UK-based investment fund company who specialised in Russian markets and prided themselves on exposing corruption and misconduct in Russian enterprises. In 2006 the CEO of the company had his visa annulled and was labelled a ‘threat to national security’ by the Russian government. Yeah, more like a threat to the pockets of corrupt businessmen and bureaucrats. Anyway, a year later, after the company refused to pay bribe money to ‘officials’, their Moscow offices were raided. As were the offices of Firestone Duncan, the law firm who represented Hermitage Capital and were Magnitsky worked. Documents and computers were seized. Hermitage had become a victim of ‘corporate raiding’ – a practice in which companies and assets are seized with the aid of corrupt law enforcement officials and judges. Well, the Hermitage case is really interesting (and quite frustrating) and you should go and look it up but we are here to talk about Magnitsky.
Sergei represented Hermitage on charges of tax evasion and fraud. Y’know, them things the government wheels out when they want to get rid of a business (or steal it) – I’m being cheeky today, excuse me. During his investigations he came to believe that tax fraud had been committed, but not by Hermitage. He discovered evidence that suggested that a group of criminals had stolen Hermitage documents and used them to illegally reclaim £140m of taxes from the Russian government – money that belonged not to Hermitage, but to the Russian people. If Magnitsky’s suspicions were true then the police, the judiciary, tax officials, bankers and the Russian mafia would’ve been implicated. His claims were initially dismissed but his main accusation, that Hermitage had not committed fraud but had in fact been victimized by it would eventually be validated.
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Bill Could Complicate U.S.-Russia Relations
Republicans and Democrats don’t agree about much on Capitol Hill these days, but there is one bill gaining bipartisan support. It’s legislation that would punish human rights violators in Russia by naming them and denying them visas to the U.S. But the Obama administration is not on board yet. U.S. diplomats worry it could complicate relations at a time when the U.S. needs Russia’s support most.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I’m Melissa Block.
Bipartisanship is rare on Capitol Hill these days but one bill is gaining support from both Republicans and Democrats. There’s a problem, though, the Obama administration is leery of it.
As NPR’s Michele Kelemen reports, the bill involves human rights abuses in Russia. And U.S. diplomats are worried it could complicate relations at a time when the U.S. needs Russia’s backing on a range of issues.
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Cardin Expects ‘Macho’ Russian Response To Magnitsky Bill
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty
By Richard Solash
April 19, 2012
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin (Democrat-Maryland) says he expects a “macho” response from Moscow should Congress pass legislation punishing Russian officials implicated in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
“We fully expect that there will be some reactions that are going to try to show [Russian] macho-ness rather than dealing with [human rights],” the senator said on April 19 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think-tank.
Cardin last year introduced legislation that would ban visas for and freeze the assets of some 60 Russians connected with the Magnitsky case, which has become an international symbol of Russia’s human rights failings.
The lawyer died in jail in 2009 at the age of 37 after implicating top Russian officials in a complex scheme to defraud the government.
Independent investigations have found that Magnitsky was repeatedly denied medical care and beaten before his death.
Moscow is currently prosecuting only one low-level prison official in the case, amid allegations of a cover-up.
Independent of the legislation, the U.S. State Department last year imposed visa bans on implicated Russian officials.
In response, Moscow compiled a blacklist of U.S. officials it says violated the rights of two Russian citizens, a suspected international arms trafficker and a convicted drug smuggler.
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Turning the Tables on Russia
The New York Times. The Opinion Pages
By JOE NOCERA
Published: April 16, 2012
Who knew that what corrupt Russian officials care about, more than just about anything, is getting their assets — and themselves — out of their own country? They own homes in St. Tropez, fly to Miami for vacation and set up bank accounts in Switzerland. They understand the importance of stashing their money someplace where the rule of law matters, which is most certainly not Russia. Besides, getting out of Russia is one of the pleasures of being a corrupt Russian official.
As it turns out, a man named William Browder knows this. As does Senator Benjamin Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland. As do plenty of other senators, on both sides of the aisle.
As a result, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will likely report out a bill in the next few weeks that would force the State Department to deny visas, and freeze the assets, of Russian officials who are labeled “gross human rights abusers.” After that, it will be attached to an important trade bill that the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican-controlled House need to pass later this summer. Which would make it a rare and welcome moment of bipartisanship in this rancorous political season.
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Kerry Backs Pairing Magnitsky Bill With Jackson-Vanik Repeal
U.S. Senator John Kerry, the influential head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he supports a measure to sanction Russian officials for human rights violations as a complement to granting Russia normalized trade status.
According to “Foreign Policy” magazine, which quotes the transcript of a March 27 business meeting of the committee, Kerry (D-Massachusetts) said that pursuing the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law and Accountability Act in conjunction with repealing the Jackson-Vanik Amendment is “the way to move forward.”
The Magnitsky bill would financially sanction and deny U.S. visas to Russian officials connected to the 2009 prison death of anticorruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
While the Obama administration has concern that passing the bill would harm relations with Moscow, many senators favor it as a trade-off for repealing the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik Amendment, a move the administration advocates.
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Lugar’s endorsement pushes Magnitsky Act forward
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Republican Richard Lugar (R-IN) came out strongly this week for a bill to sanction Russian human rights violators and urged his committee counterpart John Kerry (D-MA) to stop stalling action on the bill.
At the March 27 SFRC business meeting, Lugar read aloud a long statement in support of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011 — legislation meant to promote human rights in Russia that is named for the anti-corruption lawyer who died in a Russian prison, after allegedly being tortured, two years ago. Several senators, now including Lugar, have said publicly that unless the Magnitsky bill can become law, they will oppose the repeal of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik law that currently stands as the only U.S. law specifically aimed at holding the Russian government accountable for its human rights record.
Without repeal of Jackson-Vanik, the United States can’t grant Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status and U.S. businesses can’t take full advantage of Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization. But the senators believe that the Magnitsky bill is needed to ensure the Russian government is not let off the hook for its deteriorating record on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.
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Why is Obama Giving Up His Human Rights Leverage Against Russia?
At two separate events in Washington recently, Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, insisted that it should be a “total no brainer” for Congress to end the application of the Jackson-Vanik amendment—which denies normal, unconditional trade to non-market economies that restrict emigration—to Russia. The waning utility of Jackson-Vanik, McFaul claimed, was entirely exhausted by the completion of WTO negotiations. Now that the deal’s done, he said, “it’s really hard to understand in whose interest holding [onto this] does serve.”
But in predicating his argument on the grounds of free trade—citing, for example, imports and exports of “poultry and pork” between Russia and the United States—McFaul has shown a failure to grasp the essence of the legislation he’s discussing. By ignoring the Jackson-Vanik amendment’s historic significance for the promotion of human rights in the Soviet bloc and China, he is doing a disservice to Russia’s current democratic opposition figures.
Conceived by Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson and Congressman Charles Vanik during the Cold War, the Jackson-Vanik bill tied trade status for communist countries to the freedom to emigrate, which Jackson saw not only as an important issue in its own right, but also as a wedge for improving respect for other human rights. That’s why it misses the point to simply note, as many have, that the Soviet Union no longer exists and today’s Russia doesn’t restrict emigration (indeed, quite to the contrary, Russia is suffering a massive brain drain). The main point about Jackson-Vanik—and the reason it is still relevant to U.S.-Russia relations—is that it has always been about maximizing America’s leverage on human rights and demonstrating a willingness to use it.
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U.S. Senate May Discuss Magnitsky Sanctions in April
The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations may discuss in April a 2011 bill to impose sanctions on Russian officials implicated in the detention death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the committee’s chairman John Kerry said.
“I’d like to try to put it on a business meeting for when we return [from the April 2 – April 13 recess], and we should aim to do it,” Kerry said.
Senator Benjamin Cardin introduced the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011” last May, but no legislative action has been taken on it so far. U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said it was redundant as the U.S. already compiled a blacklist of Russian officials linked to Magnitsky’s death, who are subject to a travel ban and asset freeze.
Cardin said his bill should be passed simultaneously with discussions on the abolishment of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, an American piece of legislation from 1974 that introduced economic sanctions against the Soviet Union.
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