Posts Tagged ‘Cardin’
Senators Push to Keep 2 Russian Generals Out of U.S.
U.S. lawmakers are moving to block the planned visit to the U.S. of two Russian generals who they say helped cover up the murder of a Russian whistleblower in prison three years ago.
Their appeal in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ratchets up pressure on the Obama administration, which is defending a “reset” in relations with Moscow as a major foreign-policy accomplishment. Some in Congress have been calling for a tougher line toward Moscow.
The case of the dead whistleblower, Sergei Magnitsky, has been a source of friction in Russia-U.S. relations, and the Kremlin has bristled at a visa ban that the U.S. implemented on Russian officials linked to Mr. Magnitsky’s imprisonment and death.
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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.
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Canadian Parliament considers bill to create ‘Magnitsky blacklist’
RIA Novosti
The Canadian Parliament is considering a bill to make the so-called Magnitsky List, which blacklists persons allegedly linked to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky from entering Canada, the Parliament said on its website.
Magnitsky was arrested and jailed without trial in November 2008, and died in police custody a year later after being denied medical care. The 37-year-old lawyer was working for Hermitage Capital Management, a British-based investment fund, when he accused tax and police officials of carrying out a $230-million tax scam.
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Why Some Russians Need the West’s Help
“The West will help us.”
Ostap Bender’s famous phrase from Ilf and Petrov’s “The 12 Chairs” may have been on Konstantin Fetisov’s mind when he met with Michael Posner — U.S. assistant secretary of state for the bureau of democracy, human rights and labor — in the Moscow region a week ago.
Fetisov is a leader of the movement opposing the construction of the Kremlin-supported $8 billion Moscow-St. Petersburg highway that will travel through the Khimki forest. He was beaten badly by unidentified assailants last November, leaving him with impaired speech and memory loss.
During his meeting with Fetisov, Posner said the United States needs to “redouble” its efforts to press Russia on protecting human rights.
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U.S. reset with Russia at new stage as officials meet with human rights activists
Michael Posner got up at 4 a.m. in Moscow, bound for this Volga River city where he began filling a yellow spiral notebook with stories of newspapers silenced, human rights advocates threatened and political parties repressed as the United States prepares for a new chapter in its relations with Russia.
Call it reset 2.0.
Posner, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, describes the task as moving decisively to another level in an area where the United States has not made visible progress.
On a trip to Russia that began Monday and ended Saturday, Posner visited Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan, asking activists and opposition politicians what the United States could or should be doing to better support their efforts. He listened, took notes, asked questions and answered even more.
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RF reserves right to react to US sanctions over Magnitsky case
Russia reserves the right to adequately react if the United States uses sanctions against Russian officials over the Magnitsky case, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.
“We reacted to the fact that what happened and happens on the possible decision on using sanctions by the American Administration,” the diplomat said.
“If this is done in practice, we reserve the right to adequately react to this move,” he added.
“That kind of lists has nothing in common with partnership and the declared policy to developing strategic relations with different countries,” he stressed.
“In any democratic state competent juridical structures decide if any person or a group of persons are guilty or not of any unlawful deeds,” Lukashevich said.
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Time to Abandon ‘Reset’? : Obama’s hope that Russia would change under Medvedev has not worked out
When pressed to name the foreign-policy successes achieved under President Obama’s watch, administration officials routinely cite the president’s “reset” of relations with Russia as one of the most important. With Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin’s announcement on September 24 that he will run next year for the Russian presidency, this may soon change.
Putin’s announcement should not have come as a shock to anyone. Skeptics of the Obama administration’s efforts to “reset” relations have seen this coming since the policy was announced to much fanfare in March 2009.
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Rights activist wants investigator Dmitriyeva suspected of bribery to be questioned under Magnitsky case
Russian Interior Ministry investigator Nelly Dmitriyeva, who has been detained on suspicion of accepting a major bribe, should be questioned under an inquiry into Hermitage Capital auditor Sergei Magnitsky’s death, says Moscow Helsinki Group member Valery Borshchyov.
“I would like everyone included in the Cardin list and having relation to the Magnitsky case to be thoroughly questioned by the Investigative Committee, which is paying too little attention to these people today,” Borshchyov, who is participating in an independent public investigation into the Magnitsky case, told Interfax on Wednesday.
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Russia’s corruptionism
WE’D LIKE TO CONGRATULATE Vladimir Putin on his exciting, come-from-behind victory to become Russia’s next president. After barnstorming across steppe and taiga, presenting a detailed program for the next six years, Mr. Putin won the enthusiastic support of —
Oh, no, wait. That’s not how things work in Russia today. Actually, the story is simpler: Vladimir Putin decided that he would like to be president again, and so he will be.
This may be good news for Dmitry Medvedev, the hapless incumbent whom Mr. Putin installed in the Kremlin in 2008, after Mr. Putin already had served eight years as president. Mr. Medvedev, who had to pretend to lead while Mr. Putin ran the show, can subside into a No. 2 post (prime minister) more suited to his character and to reality.
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