Posts Tagged ‘ireland’
Russia’s child-shields
To prevent corrupt Russian officials being barred from Europe, Russia is now using the threat of an adoption ban against European states.
I am no great fan of the international adoption business – it can easily turn into a corrupt, unregulated and even sinister market in children. It is much better to deal with the reasons that the children end up in institutions in the first place and to encourage people to provide homes for them in their own country.
Now Russia is threatening to ban international adoptions. Not as part of a big push to improve child welfare, but to punish foreign countries for their temerity in imposing visa sanctions and asset freezes on the people – mainly officials – involved in the death of the auditor Sergei Magnitsky, and the $230 million (€176m) fraud that he uncovered.
It is worth bearing in mind the nature of the fraud. My email inbox is peppered with complaints from foreigners who have fallen foul of officialdom or local competitors in Russia. My answer is always the same: tough. If you go mud-wrestling, in a seemingly lucrative contest where the referee is known to be corruptible, and where your adversaries are rich and unscrupulous, you will certainly get dirty and may well lose.
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Under Child Adoption Threat, Ireland Scraps Magnitsky List
Ireland has dropped plans to impose U.S.-style Magnitsky sanctions on Russia after Moscow warned that it might respond by banning Irish parents from adopting Russian children.
The Russian opposition assailed Ireland for the reversal, saying it had not only bowed to Kremlin blackmail but had also shown a lack of leadership as the current president of the European Union.
Irish lawmakers had drafted legislation to blacklist Russian officials implicated of human rights violations in the Magnitsky case. But Russia’s ambassador to Ireland, Maxim Peshkov, wrote to the Irish parliament’s foreign affairs committee in March that any attempt to introduce a Magnitsky list might have a “negative influence” on an agreement on child adoptions between the two countries.
Several Irish parents subsequently contacted committee members after the letter was made public, expressing concern that pending adoptions for Russian children might be canceled.
Pat Breen, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said Thursday that lawmakers had decided to scrap the Magnitsky list and instead pass a motion calling on the government to convey the committee’s concern over the death.
“We have reached a motion that fulfils our obligations on human rights,” he said, according to The Irish Times.
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The Kremlin “Beat” the Opposition and Irish Parliament Beat Magnitsky
Vladislav Surkov, the architect of Putin’s “sovereign democracy” idea, and now the deputy prime minister for economic modernization, gave talk at the London School of Economics yesterday in which he said that the Kremlin “beat” the Russian opposition after the December 2011 Duma election protests:
Do you really think that the old system collapsed after the protests in December 2011? No, it beat the opposition. That’s a fact.
Surkov didn’t say how exactly the opposition was defeated, though he said he’d like to see a new political party emerge to rival United Russia (so would Putin). The Kremlin’s grey cardinal, speaking in a lecture hall that was only two-thirds full, seemed more interested in money than politics anyway. He was first asked about allegations of corruption related to the Skolkovo tech-sector project, which was designed to create counterpart to Silicon Valley near Moscow and drum up foreign direct investment in Russia. Although the questioner asked about the activities of the project’s vice president, Surkov dismissed the allegations that $750,000 was stolen as not worth the time or energy of the project’s president (whose net worth is over $15 billion, according to Forbes). The imputation here – that being mega-rich is a disincentive to steal – would be intriguing even if it hadn’t been delivered in the forum of the LSE.
Surkov went on to draw attention to his own sizable fortune, presumably to preempt any follow-up questions (or insinuations) as to whether or not he too is the beneficiary of shady deals:
“I am in the same position. I am not the poorest person after working in the business world for 10 years and I will, if necessary, work there again. I was successful in business before I joined the presidential administration. I was one of the most successful in my field.”
Meanwhile, the Irish parliament’s committee on foreign affairs watered-down the resolution on the Magnitsky case, which I blogged about at World Affairs last week. It passed unanimously today. An earlier version of the motion – modeled on the newly-passed U.S. Magnitsky Act – advocated that Ireland should adopt a law to sanction and deny visas to Russian officials credibly accused of gross human rights violations. It also called on the European Union, of which Ireland currently holds the presidency, to implement similar measures. The new motion is filled with pro forma calls for Russia to “investigate” a criminal conspiracy it has already said never existed or rather, was the brainchild of the man who uncovered it. Sergei Magnitsky, the whistleblower who exposed a $230 million tax fraud and identified the perpetrators as Russian state officials in bed with a transnational organized crime, was arrested, tortured and murdered in prison for his trouble. Now his corpse is being put on trial in Russia to prove his guilt posthumously.
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TDs and senators back down from sanctions on Russia over lawyer death
An Oireachtas Committee has backed down on proposed sanctions on Russian officials over the death of whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Russian jail four years ago.
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade has redrafted a motion that instead calls for the Irish government to convey to the Russian authorities its concern and request for reassurances that they will comply with human rights legislation in the Magnitsky case.
This follows a warning from the Russian ambassador to Ireland about sanctions which would potentially prevent Irish parents from adopting Russian children as Moscow authorities have already done to the US in response to Congress there passing the Magnitsky Act last year.
The US legislation sought to punish Russian officials suspected of being responsible for the lawyer’s death. In his letter to the Oireachtas committee, Ambassador Maxim Peshkov warned that the committee’s original approach would “not enrich bilateral Russian-Irish relations”.
He added that it could “have negative influence on the negotiations on the Adoption Agreement between Russia and Ireland being proceeded”.
Sergei Magnitsky had been working as an auditor in Moscow when he uncovered what he claimed was massive fraud by interior ministry officials and police involving some €176 million.
After reporting it to authorities, he was detained on suspicion of aiding tax evasion. He died in custody in November 2009 with his colleagues claiming the case against him was a fabrication.
In its toned-down motion released yesterday, the Oireachtas committee said that it had agreed to note that Magnitsky died in prison having “been held for 358 days at the Butyrka detention centre in Moscow”.
It also noted an inquiry by the Russian Human Rights Council which found that Magnitsky died as a result of beatings by prison guards and that charges of negligence against two prison doctors who refused him treatment for gall bladder disease and pancreatitis were dropped.
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MEPs ponder parliament-level Russia sanctions
It is early days, they have no majority and it has never been done before, but MEPs in the Liberal group are pondering the creation of a European-Parliament-level travel ban list on Russian officials.
Group leader and former Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt floated the idea in a statement on Thursday (2 May).
“I fully believe that the European Union should follow the US Congress and Senate in adopting a sanctions list. If the European Council fails to act in this regard, then the European Parliament should establish its own list based on the US Congress visa ban list,” he said.
Verhofstadt was referring to a US ban on 18 Russian officials said to be involved in the murder of Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky.
The 37-year-old accountant died in suspicious circumstances in prison in 2009 after exposing corruption by high-level officials in the interior ministry.
The US Congress forced a reluctant State Department to put his alleged killers on a blacklist by threatening to block a US-Russia trade treaty if US diplomats did not act.
Under the EU treaty, the European Parliament has no powers on sanctions.
The EU foreign service can propose them and EU countries decide by unanimity whether or not to go ahead.
A Liberal group contact said one option is the US model – threatening to block other legislation where MEPs do have jurisdiction.
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Under Child Adoption Threat, Ireland Drops Magnitsky List
Ireland has dropped plans to impose U.S.-style Magnitsky sanctions on Russia after Moscow warned that it might respond by banning Irish parents from adopting Russian children.
The Russian opposition assailed Ireland, saying it had not only bowed to Kremlin blackmail but had also shown a lack of leadership as the current president of the European Union.
Irish lawmakers had drafted legislation to blacklist Russian officials implicated of human rights violations, similar to the sanctions implemented by the U.S. late last year.
But Russia’s ambassador to Ireland, Maxim Peshkov, wrote to the Irish parliament’s foreign affairs committee in March that any attempt to introduce a Magnitsky list might have a “negative influence” on an agreement on child adoptions between the two countries.
Several Irish parents subsequently contacted committee members after the letter was made public, expressing concern that pending adoptions for Russian children might be canceled.
Pat Breen, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said Thursday that lawmakers had decided to scrap the Magnitsky list and instead pass a motion calling on the government to convey the committee’s concern over the death.
“We have reached a motion that fulfils our obligations on human rights,” he said, according to The Irish Times.
One senator, David Norris, told the committee that the Russian government should be “thoroughly ashamed” for “this use of children,” while Jim Walsh, the senator who proposed the blacklist, expressed disappointment that no sanctions would be enacted, the newspaper said. “But,” Walsh added, “politics is about achieving compromise.”
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Irish parliament to drop Magnitsky List plan after warning
The Irish parliament is set to limit its reaction to the Magnitsky affair to a statement of concern, after Russia warned against US-style sanctions.
A motion by its joint foreign affairs committee has been redrafted to say Dublin will seek reassurances from Moscow on its respect for human rights.
Members had advocated blacklisting Russian officials linked to the death of whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky.
Moscow then linked any Irish sanctions to adoptions of Russian children.
Its ambassador to Dublin, Maxim Peshkov, wrote a letter to the foreign affairs committee of the Oireachtas (the Irish houses of parliament) on 11 March saying Russia might stop adoptions by Irish parents if parliament endorsed the Magnitsky Act.
Russia banned Americans from adopting Russian children soon after the US Congress passed the legislation in December.
MPs in several EU countries are considering following the American example.
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Irish parliament backs down from sanctioning Russian officials
An Irish parliamentary committee has backed down from sanctioning Russian officials implicated in rights abuse following a warning that it could jeopardize a bilateral adoption agreement, the Irish Times reported on Thursday.
A resolution urging Irish leadership to express concern over the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow pretrial detention center in 2009 was unanimously passed by the committee on foreign affairs.
But it dropped its earlier plans to call for an EU-wide blacklist on officials implicated in the case, similar to the one passed in the United States last year.
Russian Embassy in Dublin said in March the blacklist could “have a negative influence” on the pending adoption agreement, though it later denied making a direct link between the two issues.
Pat Breen, chairman of the Irish parliamentary committee, dismissed allegations that the Russian stance amounted to blackmail, while Senator Jim Walsh, who proposed the blacklist, called the resolution a “compromise,” according to the Irish Times.
Some 1,500 Russian children have been adopted by Irish citizens since the early 1990s.
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Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade – Resolution on the case of Mr Sergei Magnitsky
At its meeting on 1 May 2013, it was agreed that the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade notes:
– that Mr. Sergei Magnitsky died in prison having been held for 358 days at the Butyrka detention centre in Moscow;
– that the independent inquiry by the Russian Human Rights Council found that he had died as a result of beatings by prison guards;
– the dropping of charges of causing death by negligence against two doctors at the prison by refusing Mr. Magnitsky treatment for gall bladder disease and pancreatitis;
– the work and recommendations of our European Parliament colleagues, Ms. Kristiina Ojuland MEP, Rapporteur for the Committee on Foreign Affairs on the Magnitsky case, and Ms. Barbara Lochbihler MEP, Chair of the Sub-committee on Human Rights;
– the European Parliament recommendation of 23 October 2012 to the Council;
– that the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, speaking at this Committee on 17 April, 2013, said as follows: “However, I can tell members that I did raise the case of Sergei Magnitsky at the Foreign Affairs Council and have argued that this is an issue that should remain on the agenda at the highest political level in the European Union’s relationship with Russia, including the summit with Russia, which takes place during every Presidency. The decision last month by the investigative committee of the Russian Federation to close the criminal investigation into his death is highly regrettable. I share the strongly-worded concerns which were expressed by Catherine Ashton on this issue and I call on the Russian authorities to reopen the investigation.”;
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