Posts Tagged ‘jackson-vanik’
Russia-US stand apart over Magnitsky bill
The US senate is considering a resounding rap on the knuckles to Russia, in a bill that went before Congress on Thursday, lambasting the rule of law in Russia and condemning a raft of officials whom supporters of dead lawyer Sergei Magnitsky accuse of corruption and complicity in his death.
A bipartisan bill sponsored by 15 senators proposes to again freeze the assets and block visas of individuals who Washington sees as committing gross human rights violations against Russian human rights activists.
The Russian foreign ministry said the bill was “regrettable,” RIA Novosti reported.
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Stealing the Future in Russia
The Other Russia
The adjective “Orwellian” has become cheap currency in modern political discourse. Liberals and conservatives alike in open democracies like the United Kingdom and the United States enjoy using the term to describe nearly any infringement on civil liberties by the state. Video cameras to deter crime, wiretaps of suspected terrorists, security checks at airports – all have been deemed worthy reference to George Orwell’s masterpiece 1984. As much as I share these concerns, those of us who live in actual police states would prefer to preserve the power of the vocabulary required to describe our circumstances.
The most powerful theme in Orwell’s book is not that of the all-seeing Big Brother, but that of the control and distortion of language, especially in the form of newspeak. Words take on inverted meanings, terms expressing unapproved ideas are eliminated, and human thought itself is curtailed through the reduction and simplification of vocabulary. This attempt to warp reality via information control is not science fiction to anyone brought up on Pravda in the Soviet Union – or anyone living in Putin’s Russia today.
And so, the presidential election of March 4 — the most fraudulent in Russian history — is proclaimed “fair and clean” by the state-controlled media. Peaceful civilian protests are dubbed “extremist provocations” and the riot police who brutally suppress the protestors are “maintaining order.” The public outcry over fraud in the December 4 parliamentary elections was followed by even greater corruption and the preordained reinstallation of a KGB lieutenant colonel who clearly aims to install himself as dictator-for-life.
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U.S. Senate Mulls Jackson-Vanik Repeal
The U.S. Senate Committee on Finance has held a hearing to consider the permanent normalization of trade with Russia, a move that the Obama administration and business leaders are pushing for but which raises the sensitive issue of Moscow’s human rights record.
Committee Chairman Senator Max Baucus (Democrat-Montana) urged his fellow lawmakers on March 15 to repeal the Jackson-Vanik Amendment — Cold War-era legislation that denies Russia permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) — for the sake of the still-fragile U.S. economy.
Doing so, he claimed, could result in a twofold increase in the volume of U.S. exports to Russia, which are currently worth around $9 billion annually.
“If the United States passes PNTR with Russia, U.S. exports to Russia are projected to double within five years,” he said. “If Congress doesn’t pass PNTR, Russia will join the WTO anyway, and U.S. exporters will lose out to their Chinese and European competitors.”
With support from the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, Russia completed its 18-year quest for membership in the World Trade Organization last year. The Duma is set to ratify membership in the coming months.
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Sen. Kyl takes strong stand against top Obama administration trade priority
The number two Republican in the Senate on Thursday threw a wrench into White House plans for quick passage of a Russia trade bill.
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) flagged his opposition to granting Russia permanent normal trade relations (PNTR). The Russia bill is the top trade priority of the Obama administration this year.
Russia is slated to join the World Trade Organization this summer. If Congress does not repeal the so-called Jackson-Vanik amendment, a Cold War-era law which makes trade relations conditional on Russia allowing free emigration, Russia will be allowed to retaliate against U.S. exporters.
“I think that I understand the message this hearing is meant to convey: ‘American businesses want access to Russian markets. We should repeal Jackson-Vanik and grant Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations without delay and without conditions. It’s a slam dunk.’ But it isn’t a slam dunk,” Kyl told a Finance Committee hearing.
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The Right Way to Sanction Russia
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate will hold a hearing to discuss the accession of Russia to the World Trade Organization and the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment that impedes American trade relations with Russia. The Obama administration has portrayed it as little more than overdue Cold War housekeeping while touting the imagined economic benefits for American farmers that could result from freer trade with Russia.
But the reality on the ground in today’s authoritarian Russia is far more complex. We support the repeal, both as leaders of the pro-democracy opposition in Russia and as Russian citizens who want our nation to join the modern global economy. It is essential, however, to see the bigger picture of which Jackson-Vanik is a part.
The “election” of Vladimir Putin to the presidency is over, but the fight for democracy in Russia is just beginning. At both major opposition meetings following the fraudulent March 4 election, we publicly resolved that Mr. Putin is not the legitimate leader of Russia. The protests will not cease and we will continue to organize and prepare for a near future without Mr. Putin in the presidency. Getting rid of him and his cronies is a job for Russians, and we do not ask for foreign intervention. We do, however, ask that the U.S. and other leading nations of the Free World cease to provide democratic credentials to Mr. Putin. This is why symbols matter, and why Jackson-Vanik still matters.
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Trade Sanctions as a Test of U.S.-Russian Relations
To the Editor:
Re “Russian Opposition Urges U.S. to End Cold War Trade Sanctions” (news article, March 13):
Rewarding President-elect Vladimir V. Putin with the revocation of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which for almost 40 years has linked the Kremlin’s human rights performance to United States trade benefits, would add insult to the injury of President Obama’s congratulating Mr. Putin for his “victory” in last week’s “election.”
If anything, the link should be strengthened by having Congress enact the “Magnitsky bill,” which restricts travel to the United States by corrupt officials of Mr. Putin’s regime.
But the administration strives to abandon the whole notion of linkage. Initiated by Senator Henry M. Jackson and the Soviet Nobel laureate Andrei D. Sakharov, American legislative pressure is as important today as at the time of Soviet repression. Appeasement of Mr. Putin would be a betrayal of this legacy.
VLADIMIR BUKOVSKY
ALEX GOLDFARB
TATIANA YANKELEVICH
London, March 13, 2012
The writers are, respectively, a former Soviet political prisoner; a former assistant to Andrei D. Sakharov; and a former director of the Andrei Sakharov Program on Human Rights at Harvard. займ на карту срочно без отказа микрозайм онлайн https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php unshaven girl
Don’t Hand Russia the Moral Victory of Abolition of Jackson-Vanik: Graduate, and Pass Magnitsky Bill
The year was 1975, writes Alex Goldfarb (in a book excerpted in snob.ru to come out soon which I’m translating).
Six Russian Jewish men sat at a kitchen table in Moscow in January. The scene was reminiscent of a famous panting by Russian artist Ilya Repin, said Masha Slepak, an activist and wife of prominent Soviet refusenik leader Vladimir Slepak. Except it was the opposite of Repin’s scene — no one was laughing or triumphant. The writers — all scientists who had been denied permission to leave the Soviet Union — were dejected, and feeling betrayed. They were writing to President Gerald Ford, and they were protesting his waiver in 1975 of the 1974 Jackon-Vanik Amendment, which had been passed due to the efforts of Sen. Henry Jackson, over the objections of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The Jewish refusenik movement leader and human rights leaders such as Andrei Sakharov had applauded the Jackson-Vanik Amendment when it was passed in 1974; now it was in jeopardy. Alex Goldfarb, who served for a time as the Soviet dissident movement’s press officer, writes in his memoirs of how depressed the Jewish activists felt after Ford’s decision. A successful lever had been established after great debate; it was going to work — and now the political capital was in danger of being squandered.
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Lavrov Dismisses Magnitsky Sanctions as ‘PR Stunt’
The recent steps by western countries introducing travel bans against Russian officials linked to the high-profile death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009 are nothing but a PR stunt, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
Magnitsky, who was detained after accusing officials of fraud, reportedly died due to torture and neglect. Two doctors were charged over his death in August last year.
“In line with international law, any country can refuse issuing a visa to anyone from any other country without giving any explanations. That is why all of this is to a large extent a pure PR stunt to show off how ‘cool’ we are. We are making lists and will not let anyone in,” Lavrov said.
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McFaul Pushes for Trade Status
The Obama administration will not support any human rights or democracy legislation in exchange for Congress repealing the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment, the U.S. envoy to Russia said in Washington on the eve of a gathering of U.S. ambassadors Tuesday.
U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul spoke about relations with Russia, telling scholars at two think tanks that refusing to lift Jackson-Vanik would not make Russia more democratic.
“If you don’t believe me, ask Navalny,” Ambassador Michael McFaul said, referring to an open letter published on the blog of Vladimir Milov, leader of the Democratic Choice movement, on Monday evening. The letter, which was also signed by Alexei Navalny and other key opposition figures in Moscow, urged the United States to remove the largely symbolic Cold War trade restriction.
The signatories included organizers of demonstrations against President-elect Vladimir Putin who recognize the lagging enthusiasm of protesters but have found it nearly impossible to unite around a common policy agenda.
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To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below
- Sergei Magnitsky
- Why was Sergei Magnitsky arrested?
- Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and death in prison
- President’s investigation sabotaged and going nowhere
- The corrupt officers attempt to arrest 8 lawyers
- Past crimes committed by the same corrupt officers
- Petitions requesting a real investigation into Magnitsky's death
- Worldwide reaction, calls to punish those responsible for corruption and murder
- Complaints against Lt.Col. Kuznetsov
- Complaints against Major Karpov
- Cover up
- Press about Magnitsky
- Bloggers about Magnitsky
- Corrupt officers:
- Sign petition
- Citizen investigator
- Join Justice for Magnitsky group on Facebook
- Contact us
- Sergei Magnitsky
