Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

The Magnitsky Act Needs to Be Strengthened

Moscow Times

The list of 18 names released Friday by the U.S. Treasury Department connected to the Sergei Magnitsky Act elicits a number of reactions. For starters, the U.S. has finally taken concrete action to address the Russian government’s atrocious human rights situation. Credit for this, however, lies with the Congress, not the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, who was opposed to the legislation. But Obama had no choice but to sign it into law last December because the Magnitsky Act was linked to lifting of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which Obama very much wanted.

It is important for European states to follow the U.S. lead and pass similar legislation. After all, Russian officials travel more to Europe and keep more of their assets there than they do in the U.S. The Magnitsky Act is an important signal to Russian officials involved in human rights abuses to show that their days of impunity are over, at least outside of Russia. But it is also important for cleaning up Western institutions, so they are not complicit in laundering ill-gotten gains of corrupt Russian officials.

As for the list itself, it is too short. There should have been many more names of people who deserve to have their assets frozen and visas denied for their involvement in human rights abuses, in the Magnitsky case and others. That the legislation passed by Congress last year called for one list meant that the Treasury Department needed to have sufficient evidence to freeze a suspect’s assets to stand up to a court challenge; denying visas is much easier and not subject to challenge. Had there been two public lists — one for asset freezes and another for visa denials — the latter presumably would have been much longer. Congress should amend the legislation to create two lists, making it easier to target more human rights abusers with a visa ban even if their assets aren’t frozen.

Nonetheless, my disappointment with the small size of the initial Magnitsky list is offset by several important factors. First, there are additional names on a classified list, as permitted by the legislation. Although there is already one leak — Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, as reported in the New York Times — and bound to be more leaks in the future, we don’t know for sure how many Russians are on the classified list. But uncertainty isn’t necessarily bad. Russian officials involved in human rights abuses should wonder whether they are on the list. Russian officials might also think twice before committing future abuses, knowing that if they were to do so, they, too, could wind up on the list. This could serve as an important deterrent to future human rights abuses.