Posts Tagged ‘john mccain’
Senator John McCain: Russians deserve better than Putin
When Pravda.ru editor, Dmitry Sudakov, offered to publish my commentary, he referred to me as “an active anti-Russian politician for many years.” I’m sure that isn’t the first time Russians have heard me characterized as their antagonist. Since my purpose here is to dispel falsehoods used by Russia’s rulers to perpetuate their power and excuse their corruption, let me begin with that untruth. I am not anti-Russian. I am pro-Russian, more pro-Russian than the regime that misrules you today.
I make that claim because I respect your dignity and your right to self-determination. I believe you should live according to the dictates of your conscience, not your government. I believe you deserve the opportunity to improve your lives in an economy that is built to last and benefits the many, not just the powerful few. You should be governed by a rule of law that is clear, consistently and impartially enforced and just. I make that claim because I believe the Russian people, no less than Americans, are endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
A Russian citizen could not publish a testament like the one I just offered. President Putin and his associates do not believe in these values. They don’t respect your dignity or accept your authority over them. They punish dissent and imprison opponents. They rig your elections. They control your media. They harass, threaten, and banish organizations that defend your right to self-governance. To perpetuate their power they foster rampant corruption in your courts and your economy and terrorize and even assassinate journalists who try to expose their corruption.
They write laws to codify bigotry against people whose sexual orientation they condemn. They throw the members of a punk rock band in jail for the crime of being provocative and vulgar and for having the audacity to protest President Putin’s rule.
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McCain Blasts Putin in Pravda: He’s Made Russia a ‘Friend to Tyrants’
The senator promised to respond to the Russian president’s ‘New York Times’ op-ed—and he has with a blistering piece in Pravda, calling Putin a corrupt autocrat who cozies up to tyrants like Assad.
Sen. John McCain lambasts Russian President Vladimir Putin in an op-ed published on the Russian news site Pravda on Thursday, calling him a corrupt autocrat who suppresses democracy, political dissent, and economic progress to maintain his iron grip on power.
McCain’s op-ed is a response to Putin’s September 11 op-ed in The New York Times, in which Putin argued against a U.S.-led intervention in Syria and accused the U.S. of working against the interests of international law and human rights. McCain rarely mentions Syria—or Putin’s op-ed—in his Pravda piece but uses the opportunity to lay out his case that Putin is systematically disrespecting the Russian people and abusing Russia’s wealth and power to enrich a small group of wealthy associates to the detriment of the rest of the country. At a basic level, Putin doesn’t believe in the values of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the rule of law, political openness, and social equality, McCain writes in his op-ed, which is directed at the Russian people.
“President Putin and his associates do not believe in these values,” McCain writes in Pravda, a Web site founded in 1999 that is not connected to the official newspaper of the Russian Communist Party. “They don’t respect your dignity or accept your authority over them. They punish dissent and imprison opponents. They rig your elections. They control your media. They harass, threaten, and banish organizations that defend your right to self-governance. To perpetuate their power they foster rampant corruption in your courts and your economy and terrorize and even assassinate journalists who try to expose their corruption.”
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STATEMENT BY SENATOR JOHN McCAIN ON RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT ASYLUM FOR EDWARD SNOWDEN
August 1, 2013
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain today released the following statement regarding reports that the Russian government has granted Edward Snowden a one-year asylum:
“Russia’s action today is a disgrace and a deliberate effort to embarrass the United States. It is a slap in the face of all Americans. Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our relationship with Putin’s Russia. We need to deal with the Russia that is, not the Russia we might wish for. We cannot allow today’s action by Putin to stand without serious repercussions.
“The first thing we should do is significantly expand the Magnitsky Act list to hold accountable the many human violators who are still enjoying a culture of impunity in Russia. We should push for the completion of all phases of our missile defense programs in Europe, and move expeditiously on another round of NATO expansion, including the Republic of Georgia. We should challenge the political convictions and detentions of Russian dissidents such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Alexei Navalny. And perhaps most importantly, we should speak out on behalf of the many people in Russia who increasingly are finding the courage to peacefully demand greater freedom, accountability, and rule of law in Russia.
“Today’s action by Putin’s Russia should finally strip away the illusions that many Americans have had about Russia the past few years. We have long needed to take a more realistic approach to our relations with Russia, and I hope today we finally start.” hairy woman быстрые займы на карту https://www.zp-pdl.com www.zp-pdl.com payday loan
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Explosive Video Documents Depth of Putin’s Mafia State
World Affairs
Michael Weiss
It is no longer possible to distinguish where organized crime ends and the state begins in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. An extraordinary 17-minute video just exhibited by the anti-corruption website Russian Untouchables shows how an elite crime syndicate headed by a longtime gangster, Dmitry Klyuev, and including active agents of the Russian Interior Ministry and Moscow tax offices, managed to steal close to $1 billion from state coffers in fraudulent tax claims. It was the Klyuev Group that attorney Sergei Magnitsky exposed after one of his clients, Hermitage Capital, was raided and its corporate documents pilfered in order to defraud the Russian state of $230 million in a sham corporate tax refund—a refund which was processed in a single day by the co-conspirators themselves. After Magnitsky exposed it, the Klyuev Group had him framed, tortured, and murdered, then blamed for the crime. The substance of this new video, all obtained through Magnitsky’s relentless legal work and backed by bank, state, and airline records, is both the reason for his death as well as his testament. All the evidence corroborating what Magnitsky uncovered can be accessed at the Russian Untouchables website. What follows is a precis of the film.
Dmitry Klyuev was a petty crook who was hired in 2002 by Igor Sagiryan, the president of Renaissance Capital, one of Moscow’s most prominent investment firms, to act as a “tax advisor who had skills in arranging tax refunds through the Russian court system,” according to another Renaissance executive who testified in court. The scheme involved arranging a refund for a company Renaissance had only recently purchased; it was completed within 6 to 8 months.
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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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Floor Statement by Senator John McCain on Russia
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) today delivered the following statement on Russia on the floor of the U.S. Senate:
“I want to take a moment to speak about Russia — and to review the state of what this Administration has trumpeted as the so-called reset of U.S.-Russia relations, especially in light of the flawed Duma election that just occurred this weekend, and in light of my strong belief that the growing demand for dignity and uncorrupt governance that has defined the Arab world this year may impact Russia as well.
“Now, let me once again make clear that I am not opposed to U.S. engagement with Russia. I am not opposed to working consistently and in good faith with Russia to find ever more ways to improve our relationship. To the contrary, we must continue to actively seek ways to cooperate with Russia in mutually beneficial ways. It is in our national interest to do so. And whatever can be said about the Administration’s policy toward Russia, no one can accuse them of a lack of sincerity and diligence in trying to increase cooperation with Russia.
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Senators Cardin and McCain Discussion on Magnitsky Act & Rule of Law in Russia
US Senate
Senators Benjamin Cardin and John McCain colloquy on the Senate Floor – Discussion on the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Acountability Act of 2011” and the Rule of Law in Russia – May 26, 2011
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