Posts Tagged ‘julian pecquet’
US lawmakers fed up with Russia, Putin
U.S. lawmakers say they’re increasingly frustrated with Vladimir Putin and are demanding that President Obama crack down on Russia following a slew of recent spats with the United States.
The country over the past two weeks has sentenced Putin’s biggest critic to five years in prison and posthumously convicted a dead whistle-blower championed by Congress. To top it off, the Kremlin is now considering asylum for NSA leaker Edward Snowden, a move lawmakers warn would bring U.S.-Russian relations to a post-Cold War low.
“Enough is enough,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared Friday upon introducing a resolution calling on the September G-20 meeting in St. Petersburg to be moved to some other country if Russia doesn’t turn over Snowden. “It’s time to send a crystal clear message to President Putin about Russia’s deplorable behavior, and this resolution will do just that.”
Schumer’s co-sponsor on the resolution, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), made international headlines earlier this week when he told The Hill that Obama should consider pulling out of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi if Snowden gets asylum.
“I would just send the Russians the most unequivocal signal I could send them,” Graham said when asked about the possibility of a boycott. “It might help, because what they’re doing is outrageous.”
The feeling is bicameral.
“I’m absolutely frustrated with Russia,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). “Every day the human rights situation continues to get worse.”
McGovern is the House author of legislation targeting alleged Russian human-rights offenders that was named after Sergei Magnitsky, an anti-corruption whistle-blower who died in police custody. McGovern urged the administration to add higher-ups in the Putin government to the list of people banned from traveling to the United States or holding assets in the country.
“We gave the administration a very effective tool – they need to use it,” McGovern told The Hill. “Now isn’t the time to be quiet, now is the time to speak up about what’s going on over there.”
“We haven’t been pushing them that hard, and they’ve been no help to us on Syria. It is important that we push back, and if we don’t, who will? Nobody.”
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US blasts Russia over Magnitsky conviction
The Obama administration and lawmakers lashed out at Russia on Thursday after the country sentenced a dead whistle-blower on tax evasion charges in the country’s first posthumous trial.
President Obama signed human rights legislation named after Sergei Magnitsky last year. The legislation places travel and financial restrictions on Russians whom the State Department identifies as human rights violators.
“We are disappointed by the unprecedented posthumous criminal conviction against Sergei Magnitsky,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. “The trial was a discredit to the efforts of those who continue to seek justice in his case. Despite widely publicized credible evidence of criminal conduct resulting in Magnitsky’s death, the authorities have failed to prosecute those responsible.
“We continue to call for full accountability for all those responsible for Magnitsky’s wrongful death and will continue to support the efforts of those in Russia who seek to hold those individuals accountable.”
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Time running out for Russia trade bill
The Russian parliament is expected to vote to join the World Trade Organization (WTP) on Tuesday, giving Congress a short window to either adopt trade legislation or risk seeing U.S. companies trail competitors in the world’s ninth-largest economy.
Establishing normal trade relations with Russia is a no-brainer for U.S. businesses eyeing a vast export market, but lawmakers in the House and Senate are still debating how to do that while retaining leverage over the country on human rights.
Once the Russian parliament ratifies accession to the world trade body, Russia will automatically become a WTO member within 30 days. If the vote happens Tuesday, it means Congress would have to act before the August recess to prevent U.S. companies from losing out.
“The [Obama] administration has consistently urged Congress to terminate application of the Jackson-Vanik amendment and authorize the president to extend permanent normal trade relations to Russia before it becomes a WTO Member,” a spokesperson for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative told The Hill via e-mail.
Doing so would “ensure that American workers and businesses will be able to reap the full benefits of Russia’s WTO membership and to put them on a level playing field with their competitors in Latin America, Europe and Asia,” the spokesperson said.
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Top trade panel Dem splits with Obama, calls for linking Russia trade bill to Syria
The top Democrat on the House trade panel Wednesday split with the White House and called for the United States to hold off on improving trade relations with Russia until the Kremlin joins the world in condemning Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
“Trade is about commerce; it also can be about conscience,” Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-Mich.) said in prepared remarks at a hearing on the trade issue.
The Obama administration and Ways and Means Committee chairman David Camp (R-Mich) are calling for establishing Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with Russia without preconditions. But Levin opened the hearing calling for linking the improvement of trade ties with Moscow to progress on Syria and passage of human rights legislation.
Levin urged Congress to pass a bipartisan, bicameral trade bill “with the clear understanding that after a bill is reported out of committee in the near future, action on the floor will be withheld for a period of time to determine whether Russia will join our nation and others in steps to address the Assad regime’s horrendous violence against its own people.”
Levin added that the trade issue should also be linked to a human rights bill that places financial and travel sanctions on Russian human rights violators. The bill is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a whistle-blowing lawyer who died in police custody in 2008.
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Vote on Russia human-rights bill postponed
A Senate panel postponed a vote on a Russian human-rights bill until next Tuesday after a panel member asked for a delay.
Under the Foreign Relations Committee’s rules, any member can anonymously request a holdover until the panel’s next business meeting. The delay comes the day after President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a frosty meeting at the Group of 20 summit in Mexico.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the bill’s Senate sponsor, said he didn’t think the delay had anything to do with the Obama-Putin meeting or the White House’s concerns with the bill. He said he expects it to pass the House and Senate.
“I am very confident that they’re not delaying our action,” Cardin said. “Doesn’t mean they’re supporting our action.
“We’ve been working very closely with the Obama administration. They’ve been very much engaged in what we’re doing.”
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