Posts Tagged ‘Cardin’
Magnitsky Bill in US Senate Targets Only Russia
The US Senate on Wednesday is set to consider a version of the “Magnitsky Act” that targets only Russian officials deemed by Washington to be complicit in human rights abuses.
The earlier version of the proposed Senate bill extended the US visa bans and asset freezes mandated in the legislation to other countries as well.
“This bill may only apply to Russia, but it sets a standard that should be applied globally,” Sen. Benjamin Cardin, the author of the “Magnitsky Act,” said in a statement Tuesday evening. “I encourage other nations to follow our lead.”
The bill before the Senate on Wednesday would simultaneously repeal the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik restrictions on trade with Russia, establish normalized bilateral trade relations with Moscow, and introduce visa bans and asset freezes targeting Russian officials considered by the White House to be involved in the death of Russian whistleblower lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, as well as other purported violators of human rights in Russia.
The language of the bill mirrors that of a version passed by the US House of Representatives last month. It is widely expected to pass in the Senate and be signed into law by US President Barack Obama.
The decision to link the rights legislation to the trade bill has angered Russia, which has promised retaliatory measures aimed at the United States. быстрые займы на карту займы на карту https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php займ онлайн на карту без отказа
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U.S. Senate To Vote On Key Russian Trade Bill
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote later on December 6 on legislation that would end Cold War-era restrictions on trade with Russia and Moldova but also impose sanctions on alleged human rights violators in Russia.
Last month, the House of Representatives approved the legislation, which grants “permanent normal trade relations” to Moscow. That would allow U.S. companies to take advantage of the benefits from Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization in August.
But the legislation also requires the United States to freeze assets and deny visas to Russian officials implicated in the death of anticorruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and in other perceived gross violations of human rights.
Magnitsky died in torturous prison conditions in 2009 after exposing a massive fraud scheme.
On the eve of the vote, senators debated the bill.
Many argued that passage of the Magnitsky Act would provide the United States with a powerful tool to advance human rights in Russia.
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Senate to vote on Russia Trade and Rights Bill
The Senate is set to endorse legislation that both normalizes trade with Russia and highlights the discord between the two countries over human rights issues.
The vote Thursday to establish permanent normal trade relations with Russia will bring considerable relief to U.S. exporters and investors anxious about losing shares of Russia’s growing market to European and Chinese competitors. It also could bring retaliation from Moscow over a provision that sanctions Russian officials who allegedly commit human rights violations.
The House passed the legislation last month on a 365-43 vote, and President Barack Obama’s administration has urged Congress to move quickly to get it to the president’s desk.
There’s a sense of urgency because Russia in August became the last major economic power to enter the World Trade Organization, committing it to lowering tariffs, removing other trade barriers, protecting intellectual property, opening up its service industries and submitting to the WTO’s dispute resolution process.
But unless Congress formally normalizes trade relations, U.S. exporters will be alone among the members of the 157-nation WTO unable to enjoy the increased market access. That puts them at a serious disadvantage in competing for sales in the world’s ninth-largest economy, with an estimated 140 million consumers.
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Russia trade bill likely headed to Obama desk
A bill granting normal trade relations to Russia is likely headed to President Obama’s desk for his signature after key objections have been dropped in the Senate.
The Senate is on course to vote on granting Russian permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) on Thursday. The bill also contains human rights provisions aimed at punishing those accused of murdering lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and other human rights violations.
Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said on the Senate floor that they are willing to look to other bills to try to make the Magnitsky provisions apply to all countries.
“I will not let perfection become the enemy of the good,” Kyl said.
“I hope we will make this statutorily global. We will have that debate at a later date,” Cardin said.
The House bill on the Senate floor only applies human rights provisions to Russia, and attempts to amend it could have led to a stalemate with the House. Big business lobbyists, opposed to the sanctions in the bill, have been keen to limit the Magnitsky provisions just to Russia.
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Senate to vote to normalize trade with Russia, impose human rights sanctions
The Senate is set to endorse legislation that both normalizes trade with Russia and highlights the discord between the two countries over human rights issues.
The vote Thursday to establish permanent normal trade relations with Russia will bring considerable relief to U.S. exporters and investors anxious about losing shares of Russia’s growing market to European and Chinese competitors. It also could bring retaliation from Moscow over a provision that sanctions Russian officials who allegedly commit human rights violations.
The House passed the legislation last month on a 365-43 vote, and President Barack Obama’s administration has urged Congress to move quickly to get it to the president’s desk.
There’s a sense of urgency because Russia in August became the last major economic power to enter the World Trade Organization, committing it to lowering tariffs, removing other trade barriers, protecting intellectual property, opening up its service industries and submitting to the WTO’s dispute resolution process.
But unless Congress formally normalizes trade relations, U.S. exporters will be alone among the members of the 157-nation WTO unable to enjoy the increased market access. That puts them at a serious disadvantage in competing for sales in the world’s ninth-largest economy, with an estimated 140 million consumers.
“This is no small matter,” said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Russia’s accession to the WTO “includes lower tariffs on aircraft and auto exports, larger quotas for beef exports and greater access to Russia’s telecommunications and banking markets.”
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Congress acts to pass landmark human rights measure in memory of murdered Russian lawyer
Three years to the day after an anti-corruption lawyer was tortured to death in Russia, a bill bearing his name and aimed at punishing human rights violators has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The so-called Sergei Magnitsky amendment, named after the lawyer who died at age 37, passed by a margin of 365 to 43 votes, bringing together hard-line Republicans and liberal Democrats.
President Vladimir Putin’s government has made clear its vehement opposition to the amendment, which the Obama administration has also opposed vigorously, fearing it will damage its ‘reset’ policy of courting Russia.
The amendment, which allows the U.S. to deny visas and freeze the assets of Russian officials believed to be connected to Magnitsky’s death, was passed on Friday as part of a broader measure to normalising trade relations with Russia.
William Browder, an American-born investor who is based in London after being expelled from Russia in 2005, has been a tireless campaigner for the measure in memory of Magnitsky, who acted for him and paid the price with his life.
Principal backers in the House have included Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, respectively among the most right-wing and liberal inthe chamber. In the Senate, liberal Ben Cardin and conservatives John McCain and Jon Kyl have banded together.
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Sergei’s Law: A Congressional victory for trade and human rights in U.S. relations with Russia.
Bravo, Congress. Seriously. The House has earned this praise after Friday’s legislative victory for trade and human rights.
Passed with a rare bipartisan majority of 365 to 43, H.R. 6165 “normalizes” trade ties with Russia by retiring Jackson-Vanik, a landmark 1974 law that pressed the Soviet Union to liberalize Jewish emigration during the Cold War. The bill will let American investors take advantage of lower tariffs and better protections for intellectual property from Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization this summer.
But the law will be forever and justly associated with Sergei Magnitsky. The House voted on the third anniversary of the anticorruption activist’s death in a Moscow jail, after months of torture and neglect. Title IV of the trade measure bans Russian officials who commit such abuses from traveling or banking in the U.S. The “Magnitsky Act” is the most consequential piece of human-rights legislation since Jackson-Vanik, and a worthy successor.
The law grew out of the tireless lobbying of William Browder, an American investor who employed Magnitsky, and the persistence of Senator Ben Cardin, the Maryland Democrat who introduced the bill in 2010. It went nowhere at first, as the Obama Administration opposed sanctions in the name of protecting its “reset” in relations with Russia, and Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry did his best to kill the Magnitsky provision despite bipartisan support.
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House Passes Bill Barring Russian Human Rights Abusers from U.S.
Freedom House applauds the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act by the House of Representatives on Friday and calls on the Senate to pass the legislation as soon as possible. The Magnitsky Act, as it is known, was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support as part of a larger bill that normalizes trade relations with Russia and Moldova, which Freedom House also supports.
The bill, named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who died in jail after exposing a multimillion-dollar fraud by Russian officials, would place visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials involved in human rights abuses. The legislation’s passage falls on the three year anniversary of Magnitsky’s murder in prison due to abuse and lack of medical treatment after he was accused of the very fraud he exposed.
“Corrupt Russian officials involved in gross human rights abuses should not be allowed the privilege to travel to the U.S. or use our financial system,” said David J. Kramer, president of Freedom House. “Tying normalization of trade to accountability for human rights abuses honors the sacrifice of Sergei Magnitsky and countless others who have been targeted, jailed, and killed for speaking out, spotlighting corruption, and exercising their fundamental freedoms. The Magnitsky Act targets only those responsible, not Russia as a whole, and demonstrates that the U.S. Congress will not stand by silently in the face of such egregious crimes.”
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Magnitsky Supporters Make Final Push Before U.S. Vote
Supporters of the late Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky made a final push ahead of a U.S. vote set for November 16 that would move toward sanctioning officials implicated in his death.
Senator Benjamin Cardin and William Browder, Magnitsky’s former employer, were among those advocating passage of the legislation at a November 15 hearing of the U.S. Congress’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
Magnitsky died in harsh prison conditions in 2009 after implicating Russian officials in a scheme to defraud the government.
The House of Representatives bill would deny visas to and freeze the U.S. assets of implicated officials.
It has been joined to legislation that would grant Moscow permanent normal trade relations with Washington.
The measure is expected to pass, after which it would then need Senate approval.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on November 15 that Moscow will have a “tough” response if the bill is adopted. unshaven girl hairy woman https://zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php займы на карту срочно
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