Posts Tagged ‘financial times’
Magnitsky bill opens door to wider targets
When the Magnitsky bill first started making its way through the US Congress a couple of years ago, its authors had one target in mind: to punish Russian officials behind the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who blew the whistle on a government corruption case and died in jail.
With human rights causes, however, one powerful example can sometimes open the door to much broader action. This could well happen with the Magnitsky bill. As the legislation gets closer to passage – potentially this month – the human rights lobby is on the verge of winning an important tool to influence US foreign policy.
While Russian corruption was the initial target, some in Congress are already thinking about other causes it can be used to pursue. And they have some big fish in mind. “If the bill stays as it is at the moment,” says one Senate staff member involved with the legislation, “this will be as much about China as it is about Russia.”When Magnitsky was doing some legal work for the Hermitage investment group, he discovered evidence that a group of Russian officials had effectively stolen $230m in tax payments made by Hermitage. When he detailed his allegations, he was arrested in late 2008 and accused of fraud.
Nearly a year later, he died in jail after being denied medical treatment.
Two years ago, a couple of Democrats in Congress started to push a bill that named the 60 Russian officials and police officers they said were behind Magnitsky’s death.
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‘Magnitsky law’ makes progress in Senate
By Catherine Belton in Moscow and Geoff Dyer in Washington
A US Senate committee has approved a bill named after Russian anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky that would impose sanctions on human rights abusers as new evidence emerged concerning the events leading up to Mr Magnitsky’s death.
On Tuesday the Senate foreign relations committee approved the “Magnitsky Law”, which has also passed a committee in the House of Representatives and which imposes restrictions on the financial activities and travel of Russian officials allegedly involved in the case.
The vote was held as friends and former colleagues of Mr Magnitsky released evidence that showed those accused by the lawyer of taking part in a lucrative tax rebate fraud had flown on numerous trips abroad with the owner of the bank that received the funds.
Mr Magnitsky died in a pre-trial detention centre in November 2009, more than a year after he alleged that a circle of interior and tax ministry officials had conspired to defraud the Russian budget through a $230m tax fraud scam.
The federal prison service has assumed partial responsibility for his death, accepting he was denied medical attention, while a government human rights council concluded that he was probably beaten to death while in custody on separate tax fraud charges.
His case has become a big irritant for the Obama administration’s efforts to “reset” relations with Russia and Moscow has threatened retaliation if the Magnitsky bill becomes law.
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Obama set to press Putin on Syria at G20
After a week when it sometimes felt as if the cold war had never ended, Barack Obama will finally get some quiet time on Monday with Vladimir Putin to press the new Russian president on the crisis in Syria.
With senior diplomats from both countries trading unusually aggressive barbs in recent days, Mr Obama plans to use a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Mexico to privately test whether the US and Russia can find common ground on Syria, according to senior US officials.
The first encounter between the two presidents since Mr Putin’s return to presidential office will be a critical showdown in the diplomacy of the Syrian crisis. But it also will provide an indication of where US-Russia relations are headed under a leader who has a notoriously sceptical view of US power – and who declined to attend last month’s G8 summit at Camp David, a move many interpreted as a snub.
Mr Obama faces the delicate task of trying to forge a good working relationship with Mr Putin while Congress is moving close to passing the Magnitsky bill, which criticises Russia’s human rights record.
Complicating matters even more, Mr Obama is in the midst of an election campaign in which his Republican opponent is looking to pounce on any signs of concessions.
“The Magnitsky case … supports my point that we are in for much more difficult times in the relationship with the US,” says Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
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Moscow trade move on US agenda
Momentum is growing in Congress for legislation to normalise US trade relations with Russia in connection with its looming accession to the World Trade Organisation.
A bipartisan group of influential senators on Tuesday introduced a bill that would grant “permanent normal trade relations” status to Russia, calling for fellow lawmakers to approve the legislation over the next two months.
The bill – sponsored by Max Baucus, the chairman of the Senate finance committee – would also repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment, a provision of US law designed in the 1970s to restrict trade with countries that restrict emigration.
“Jackson-Vanik served its purpose during the cold war, but it’s a relic of another era that now stands in the way of our farmers, ranchers and businesses pursuing opportunities to grow and create jobs,” said Mr Baucus. “We owe it to American workers and businesses to enable them to take advantage of the doors opening in Russia.”
The move comes amid persistent concerns harboured by many US lawmakers about Russia’s foreign policy – particularly with regard to Syria – as well as the pace of political and economic reforms, and human rights in the country.
In fact, Mr Baucus said he planned to introduce an amendment to the PNTR legislation called the “Magnitsky” bill – which is opposed by Russia – allowing the US to freeze assets and deny entry to Russian officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses.
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UK restricts entry for rights abuse suspects
Britain has strengthened its immigration rules to make it more difficult for people believed to have perpetrated human rights abuses abroad to enter the country, according to Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials.
In a move this week that could make it particularly difficult for individuals accused of human rights abuses in Russia to enter the UK, the FCO announced a change to British immigration rules in its annual Human Rights Report this week.
In that report, the FCO states for the first time that “where there is independent, reliable and credible evidence that an individual has committed human rights abuses, the individual will not normally be permitted to enter the United Kingdom.”
Before this week’s change, UK immigration rules stated broadly that an individual “could be refused a visa or entry on the general grounds that entry to the UK would not be conducive to the public good”.
FCO officials say this week’s change implies a deliberate new emphasis by the UK government on the need to penalise human rights abuses.
“Where there is reliable evidence that an individual has committed human rights abuses, the presumption is that they would not be allowed entry in to the UK,” said an official. “Many people are drawn to visit London to buy property, invest money and educate their children. What we are saying is that if you are guilty of human rights abuses you cannot now expect to do that.”
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EU urges action over Russian lawyer’s death
By Catherine Belton in Moscow
Herman Van Rompuy, European Council president, has called on Dmitry Medvedev to bring to a “credible” close an investigation into the death in jail of Sergei Magnitsky, the anti-corruption lawyer, before his term as Russian president expires.
Calling the case “emblematic” for “the state of the rule of law and judiciary” in Russia, Mr Van Rompuy said in a letter, dated April 18, to the Russian president and seen by the Financial Times, that bringing the investigation to “credible and thorough conclusion before the end of your term would be of symbolic relevance and send a very important signal for the future of Russia”.
Mr Medvedev came to power pledging to crack down on corruption and to boost the independence of the courts. But critics say the lack of progress in investigating Magnitsky’s death is symbolic of the president’s inability to take his pledges beyond the level of rhetoric over his four-year term. Mr Medvedev is due on May 7 to hand over the presidency to Vladimir Putin, his mentor who as prime minister had continued to be seen as Russia’s paramount leader.
The official investigation into Magnitsky’s death is due to be completed on April 24, more than two years after he died in jail in November 2009, sparking an international outcry. His death came more than a year after he alleged that a circle of interior ministry and tax ministry officials had conspired to defraud the Russian budget through a $230m tax fraud scam.
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West needs to engage with ordinary Russians
Vladimir Putin, after a campaign dripping with anti-western vitriol, has won a presidential election that monitors and Russia’s newly-emboldened opposition say was deeply flawed. How should the west respond?
US and European Union leaders are already being criticised – including by Russian pro-democracy groups – for tepid criticism of the alleged voting fraud. One European parliamentarian has said there should be “no business as usual” with Mr Putin’s regime.
But many in Russian civil society and the intelligentsia say it is crucial for the west not to isolate Russia at the very moment that its middle-class political consciousness is flowering.
Doing so could provide cover for a Kremlin clampdown on the nascent opposition. It would make it harder, too, to counter official propaganda that the financial crisis and eurozone problems prove western-style market democracy is not a shining model for Russia.
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Russia’s Silicon Valley woos British investors
A delegation from Russia’s proposed ‘Silicon Valley’ development, Skolkovo, came to the UK this week in an effort to persuade UK businesses to invest in the high-tech hub being built on the outskirts of Moscow.
They faced awkward questions, however, about the political landscape that companies might face if they transferred operations to Russia. Denis MacShane, Labour MP for Rotherham, wrote to Lord Green, the trade minister, criticising the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry for hosting the conference, and pointing to the difficulties that many UK companies had faced in Russia.
“I believe the Government should add…an official health and safety warning so British businesses seeking to be involved in Russia do so with their eyes open to the risks they run,” Mr MacShane wrote.
He cited the case of Hermitage Capital, a hedge fund which was forced to leave Russia, and whose lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died in jail after uncovering an alleged $230m corruption scheme by high-level officials.
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A dead man’s tale of Russian justice
Russian police have threatened a posthumous prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer who died in custody where he was detained on charges of tax evasion after accusing interior ministry officials, police and others of corruption. His relatives were advised that the prosecution might be dropped if they stopped trying to clear his name and pursue those responsible for his death.
Things had started badly in the Moscow courtroom that morning. A sour mood prevailed in the drab functional chamber. Up on the bench the presiding judge was already showing signs of irritation. He took his duties seriously and the accused was clearly making a mockery of proceedings by being dead.
Judge X was inherently a well-meaning man but he took a dim view of people being dead when they were due in court. He considered whether an exemplary punishment might be warranted as a warning to others not to be dead when they had serious charges to face.
Worse still, the accused was not only dead, he had refused to show up. Bad enough to stand trial while dead; unforgivable to skip the hearing altogether. In the cage that served as a dock, two guards stood on either side of the empty chair in case the accused tried to escape.
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