Posts Tagged ‘mccain’
Interview: McCain On Russia, Putin, And His Pravda.ru Op-Ed
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – NEW YORK, September 20, 2013) U.S. Senator John McCain (Republican-Arizona) has defended an opinion piece he wrote this week that was critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling Yuri Zhigalkin of RFE/RL’s Russian Service that his remarks were based on the facts about rights abuses in Russia.
RFE/RL: Senator, I had the feeling that critics and supporters of your op-ed in Pravda.ru — and this is kind of surprising — are about evenly split. Some say that McCain is basically saying what a good Russian human rights activist should say. Others say he is just an old man outside Russia who doesn’t understand a thing about Russia. Your reaction to that?
John McCain: The comments I make are based on facts — about repression, about [Sergei] Magnitsky [the whistle-blowing Russian lawyer who died in custody in 2009], about total control of the media, and the human rights abuses that continue.
RFE/RL: Why did you decide to write this article? What was your goal, what were you trying to achieve?
McCain: The truth is always an important thing, and the comments that Mr. Putin made [in his “New York Times” op-ed] about the United States of America and events here were directly contradicted by the situation in Russia, and if I ever have a chance to speak to the people of Russia, no matter how insignificant it will be, I will seize that opportunity because I am pro-Russian, and the abuses that are being heaped upon them by the Putin autocracy is, in my view, something that deserves our sympathy and our opposition.
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McCain tells Russia Putin ‘doesn’t believe in you’
US Senator John McCain penned a blistering column for a Russian news website on Thursday, telling the Russian people that their President Vladimir Putin is a dissent-quashing tyrant who “doesn’t believe in you.”
The senior US lawmaker and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee accosted Putin and his associates for rigging elections, imprisoning and murdering opponents, fostering corruption and “destroying” Russia’s reputation on the world stage.
“I am not anti-Russian,” McCain wrote in the piece for Pravda.ru website. “I am pro-Russian, more pro-Russian than the regime that misrules you today.”
McCain last week said he intended to write an op-ed piece for Russian media after Putin had his own column published in The New York Times.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Russian News Service radio that the president would read the piece, but is unlikely to respond.
“McCain is not known as a fan of Putin. To engage in polemics — I doubt it, his is the point of view of a person who lives across the ocean,” Peskov said.
The website Pravda.Ru is not known as a serious news source and has nothing to do with the newspaper Pravda published by the Communist party, which was the country’s most important paper in the Soviet era but which has now fallen into obscurity.
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Boxer, Murphy, Shaheen, McCain Urge Focus on Russia’s Repressive, Discriminatory Policies at G-20 Summit
For Immediate Release:
August 30, 2013
Contact: Washington D.C. Office (202) 224-3553
Boxer, Murphy, Shaheen, McCain Urge Focus on Russia’s Repressive, Discriminatory Policies at G-20 Summit – Senators Ask President Obama to Call Attention to Violations of Basic Freedoms Under Russian President, Including Jailing of Opposition Figures and Laws Targeting NGOs and the LGBT Community
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Christopher Murphy (D-CT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and John McCain (R-AZ), all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today sent a letter to President Obama urging him to use his upcoming trip to the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, as an opportunity to call attention to the Russian government’s ongoing crackdown on human rights and civil society. The Summit begins on September 5.
“The United States must not give President Putin a free pass on repression,” the Senators wrote. “We hope we can count on you to prioritize advancing human rights as a central objective of U.S. relations with Russia.”
In the letter, Senators Boxer, Murphy, Shaheen and McCain called for a renewed focus by the U.S. and its allies on Russia’s deteriorating human rights situation and the government’s assault on basic freedoms—including criminalizing peaceful speech, discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, imprisoning those who criticize President Putin or his security force allies, and harassing and intimidating lawyers who stand up for human rights defenders.
The Senators wrote, “Russia is a great power with enormous potential to help solve the world’s problems. But great powers should respect international human rights norms and uphold the rule of law both at home and abroad.”
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The Wrong Way to Punish Putin
Punishing Russia is all the rage these days. After Moscow gave temporary asylum to the NSA leaker Edward Snowden, U.S. Senator John McCain proposed extending the “Magnistky List” of Russian officials barred from entering the United States, speeding deployment of missile defenses in Europe, and rapidly expanding NATO to include Georgia. The British actor Stephen Fry and various LGBT activists have advocated a boycott of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics to protest recent Russian policies targeting gays and lesbians. Gay bars in the United States have reportedly started dumping their stocks of Stolichnaya vodka.
Most significantly, on Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama canceled a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that was supposed to take place in September in Moscow, expressing displeasure at the Kremlin’s granting of asylum to Snowden, among other things.
Anger with Russia’s behavior on these scores is perfectly understandable. Snowden has been charged with serious crimes and Washington has a legitimate interest in bringing him to trial. Russia’s recent law banning “pro-homosexual propaganda” has created a climate of aggression, in which vigilantes attack LGBT Russians and post horrifying videos of their violence online.
But before leaping into action, those eager to punish Russia should consider two things. First, why is Putin behaving in this way? And second, will the sanctions in question hurt him or actually benefit him? Given that Putin is currently fighting for his political life, a public showdown with the West will help him stay afloat. The Americans and Europeans who want to change Moscow’s course should therefore be careful not to play into Putin’s hands.
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McCain: Canceling Putin meeting not enough
Sen. John McCain said Sunday it’s “fine” that President Barack Obama canceled a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but Obama’s actions and statements show he does not understand how to deal with Putin.
“The president comparing him to a kid in the back of the classroom, I think, is very indicative of the president’s lack of appreciation of who Vladimir Putin is,” the Arizona Republican said on “Fox News Sunday,” referring to a comment Obama made in a press conference on Friday. “He’s an old KGB colonel that has no illusions about our relationship, does not care about a relationship with the United States, continues to oppress his people, continues to oppress the media and continues to act in an autocratic and unhelpful fashion.”
Canceling the meeting, which the president did last week after Russia granted asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, was “symbolic,” McCain said, but the U.S. needs to expand the Magnitsky Act and enforce human rights, get Georgia into NATO and expand missile defense systems in Europe.
“We also need very badly to understand that Mr. Putin does not have the United States-Russia relationships in any priority and treat him in a realistic fashion,” the senator said. “hat’s the way to treat Mr. Putin, not just canceling a meeting.” займ онлайн на карту без отказа срочный займ https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php микрозаймы онлайн
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President Obama accused by senior Republican of ‘weak’ stance on Russia
President Barack Obama faced calls Sunday to pursue a more hawkish line on Russia, with an influential Republican foreign policy voice suggesting the US leader lacked sufficient insight over Vladimir Putin’s intentions.
Arizona senator and former White House candidate John McCain suggested that comments made by Obama following the cancellation of a meeting with the Russian president did not go far enough to address a series of grievances Washington has with Moscow, including the handling of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Obama spoke on Friday of worsening US-Russia relations but said that he did not have a “bad personal relationship” with Putin, despite the tension suggested by his body language – “that kinda slouch, like a bored kid at the back of the classroom” – when the pair meet.
Speaking on Fox News Sunday, McCain said: “The president comparing him to a kid in the back of the classroom, I think, is very indicative of the president’s lack of appreciation of who Vladimir Putin is.”
“He’s an old KGB colonel that has no illusions about our relationship, does not care about a relationship with the United States, continues to oppress his people, continues to oppress the media and continues to act in an autocratic and unhelpful fashion.”
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Senators Demand Repercussions For Russia In Wake Of Snowden Asylum
Pressure is building in Congress for President Obama to move the G-20 summit in September away from St. Petersburg in light of Russia’s granting Edward Snowden asylum on Thursday.
“Russia has stabbed us in the back, and each day that Mr. Snowden is allowed to roam free is another twist of the knife,” said Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in a statement. “Others who have practiced civil disobedience in the past have stood up and faced the charges because they strongly believed in what they were doing. Mr. Snowden is a coward who has chosen to run. Given Russia’s decision today, the President should recommend moving the G-20 summit.”
“Yes. Yes I do,” Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Buzzfeed when asked if she thought Obama should consider not attending the G-20 meeting.
“I think this is a troubling pattern,” Ayotte said, pointing to Putin’s support for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, his crackdown on adoptions and a string of other decisions in which he’s “basically just trampling on what we’ve expressed to him that we want to see happen … we’re not just talking about Snowden here.”
Other senators didn’t explicitly call for Obama’s plans to change, but strongly condemned Putin for allowing Snowden into Russia instead of returning him to the U.S.
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Russia’s Adoption Ban Triggers a Diplomatic Crisis
On December 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a ban on adoptions of Russian children by American citizens. The ban was part of a broader law tailored to retaliate against the United States for passing a recent law intended to punish Russian human rights violators, the New York Times reports. Yet it may have spawned a need for crisis negotiations between the two countries.
The U.S. law honored a Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who attempted to expose tax fraud by the Russian government. Magnitsky was arrested and died in prison in 2009 after allegedly being denied medical attention. The U.S. law bars Russians who have been accused of human rights abuses – such as the doctor who refused requests to treat Magnitsky – from traveling in the United States.
Russian Retaliation
Angered, Russian policymakers sought a diplomatic tit-for-tat. But given that few Americans travel to Russia or own homes there, a reciprocal response would have little effect. They stumbled upon an imperfect equivalent: a ban on American adoptions of Russian children. The ban was named after a Russian-born toddler, Dmitri Yakovlev, who died of heatstroke after his adoptive father accidentally left him in a parked car for nine hours.
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The biggest anti-corruption story of 2012
President Obama signed into law earlier this month the Magnitsky Act. It targets travel and economic sanctions against those responsible for the jailing and death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. But the importance of the law extends far beyond that.
For decades (and with more urgency since 9/11), the United States has been looking for a legal way to punish foreign kleptocrats. The Magnitsky Act is the answer.
The immediate aim is to hold people in Russia accountable for what happened to Magnitsky. After he uncovered a $230 million tax fraud apparently orchestrated by mobsters and government officials, he was detained without trial. After a year in custody, he died in jail.
No one in Russia has been arrested or tried for his 2009 death or the crimes he discovered.
Without the Magnitsky Act, there were obstacles for the U.S. to punish Russians implicated in the case. The FCPA only reaches bribe payers and not bribe takers. A newer law, Presidential Proclamation 7750, enacted by George W. Bush in 2004, allows the State Department to deny U.S. visas to kleptocrats and their cronies — but only in secret, never naming those targeted. And the DOJ’s more recent Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative uses cumbersome asset forfeitures against crooked foreign leaders but doesn’t impose any punishment on the individuals themselves.
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