Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

US business warns against Russian sanctions bill

Reuters

A bill to punish Russian officials for alleged human rights abuses would badly damage U.S.-Russian ties and hurt U.S. exports, business groups said on Tuesday, two days before a key congressional panel will vote on the measure.

The bill would require the United States to deny visas and freeze the assets of Russians linked to the detention and death of Sergei Magnitsky, an anti-graft lawyer who died in a Russian jail in 2009 under suspicious circumstances.

The legislation is expected to win approval on Thursday in the House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee, clearing the way for the full House to take up the measure, either on its own or part of a trade bill.

Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, whose members include major U.S. exporters such as Boeing, Microsoft and Caterpillar, told reporters on Tuesday the Magnitsky bill was “seriously flawed.”

He argued it would make it even harder to get Russia’s cooperation on issues ranging from Iran’s nuclear ambitions to Syria’s bloody crackdown on dissent.

U.S. companies also fear they will lose sales coming from Russia’s entry into the WTO because Moscow will retaliate by turning to other suppliers, Reinsch said.