Posts Tagged ‘McFaul’
Russia warns of retaliation for U.S. Magnitsky bill
Russia is prepared to retaliate if the U.S. Congress passes the Magnitsky bill, which would freeze assets of and deny U.S. visas to Russian officials linked to human rights abuses, President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign adviser said Tuesday.
“We would very much like to avoid it,” Yuri Ushakov said. “But if this new anti-Russian law is adopted, then of course that demands measures in response.”
Ushakov’s comments came in an otherwise upbeat briefing on a meeting between Putin and President Obama set for June in Mexico. The Obama administration has been resisting the legislation, introduced by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), viewing it as too provocative, even as the State Department has acted on its own to refuse entry to Russian officials associated with the Magnitsky case.
But in a recent interview, Cardin said he was sure the bill would pass, adding that he thinks the administration is preparing to accept the legislation if it is paired with another bill granting Russia normal trade-relation status. That is required under the terms of Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, one of the central achievements of Obama’s “reset” of relations with Moscow.
The administration has apparently realized that it cannot stop the Magnitsky bill and will have to deal with the anger of the Russian leadership. If Ushakov’s remarks were designed to encourage a presidential veto of the bill, they are unlikely to succeed, given the difficulty the White House would face in killing a human rights measure. It could come out of committee as early as next month, according to a congressional official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
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Russia to Retaliate if U.S. Passes Magnitsky Bill
Russia will take retaliatory measures if the United States replaces the Soviet-era Jackson-Vanik amendment hampering Russian-U.S. trade with new “anti-Russian laws” related to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian presidential aide said on Tuesday.
“If the new anti-Russian Magnitsky bill is passed, it would require some response measure from us,” Yury Ushakov said, adding that Moscow hoped it would not happen.
A group of influential U.S. senators, including former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, proposed in mid-March introducing a blacklist of Russian officials allegedly linked to the Hermitage Capital lawyer, Magnitsky’s death in a Moscow pre-trial detention center in November 2009, in exchange for the cancellation of the Jackson-Vanik amendment.
The Jackson-Vanik amendment, passed in 1974, barred favorable trade relations with the Soviet Union because it wouldn’t let Jewish citizens emigrate. It has been defunct for the past two decades, and both Moscow and Washington have warned that, if not repealed, it would be an obstacle to productive U.S.-Russian trade relations when Russia enters the World Trade Organization (WTO).
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Bill Could Complicate U.S.-Russia Relations
Republicans and Democrats don’t agree about much on Capitol Hill these days, but there is one bill gaining bipartisan support. It’s legislation that would punish human rights violators in Russia by naming them and denying them visas to the U.S. But the Obama administration is not on board yet. U.S. diplomats worry it could complicate relations at a time when the U.S. needs Russia’s support most.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I’m Melissa Block.
Bipartisanship is rare on Capitol Hill these days but one bill is gaining support from both Republicans and Democrats. There’s a problem, though, the Obama administration is leery of it.
As NPR’s Michele Kelemen reports, the bill involves human rights abuses in Russia. And U.S. diplomats are worried it could complicate relations at a time when the U.S. needs Russia’s backing on a range of issues.
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Obama Suckering America into Loving Russia
American Thinker
April 22, 2012 By Kim Zigfeld
Lies have consequences. And the lies told by the Obama administration about Russia for the past four years, lies which can be characterized only as Goebbels-like propaganda, have had devastating consequences indeed.
Polls show that from the moment Vladimir Putin took power, Americans began to think ill of Russia. Throughout the Gorbachev years, the American view of Russia as an enemy was waning, and when Boris Yeltsin took power for the first time, more Americans reported viewing Russia as a friendly country, or even an ally, than saw it as unfriendly or an enemy. By the middle of the Yeltsin term in office, the gap in Russia’s favor had become enormous.
But throughout the Putin years this process reversed itself, so that by 2008, significantly more Americans saw Russia as a threat than as a balm. In fact, the process began even before Putin, when Americans were shocked to see Yeltsin bomb his own parliament building and give virulent support to the genocidal maniacs in Serbia, which Russians look on as their “little brother.” To top that off, of course, Yeltsin named Putin, a proud KGB spy, as his successor.
Then Barack Obama took power and placed Michael McFaul in charge of his Russia policy, which soon came to be labeled as “reset.” McFaul and Obama deluged Americans with brazen lies for four years, telling them that Putin was no longer in charge of Russia; that a new generation led by Dmitri Medvedev, the new president, had taken power; and that this generation could be trusted and befriended.
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Russia’s treatment of US ambassador a reflection of shaky relations
In the past eight days, the US ambassador to Russia has been harassed by state media, called arrogant by his host country’s foreign minister and had guests accosted outside his home by the Kremlin youth group Nashi.
American officials had been assured that the anti-US rhetoric streaming out of Moscow since the end of last year was part of Vladimir Putin’s campaign to return to the presidency, a populist move to blame Russia’s ills on a tested enemy of yore. But the continued attacks on Michael McFaul, who took up his post as ambassador in January, have raised questions about the fate of US-Russia relations under Putin’s presidency.
The latest incident came on Wednesday, when Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, chided McFaul for reacting “arrogantly” to Russian concerns over US plans to build a missile defence shield in Europe.
“Yesterday our colleague, the US ambassador, arrogantly announced there will be no changes on missile defence, even though it would seem that an ambassador should understand it is necessary to take the interests of the state in question into account,” Lavrov said.
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Lugar’s endorsement pushes Magnitsky Act forward
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Republican Richard Lugar (R-IN) came out strongly this week for a bill to sanction Russian human rights violators and urged his committee counterpart John Kerry (D-MA) to stop stalling action on the bill.
At the March 27 SFRC business meeting, Lugar read aloud a long statement in support of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011 — legislation meant to promote human rights in Russia that is named for the anti-corruption lawyer who died in a Russian prison, after allegedly being tortured, two years ago. Several senators, now including Lugar, have said publicly that unless the Magnitsky bill can become law, they will oppose the repeal of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik law that currently stands as the only U.S. law specifically aimed at holding the Russian government accountable for its human rights record.
Without repeal of Jackson-Vanik, the United States can’t grant Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status and U.S. businesses can’t take full advantage of Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization. But the senators believe that the Magnitsky bill is needed to ensure the Russian government is not let off the hook for its deteriorating record on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.
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Anti-Russian Amendment Now Headache for U.S.
Economic sanctions against Russia imposed by the United States in 1974 could backfire on America this year, but are likely to stay in place because of persistent political and ideological grudges between the two Cold War rivals, analysts said.
The Jackson-Vanik amendment was defunct in practice over the last two decades, but things got tricky after Russia completed its 18-year-long path to the World Trade Organization (WTO) last year, with more than a little help from the White House.
WTO rules ban formal trade restrictions such as the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which means the United States could face economic sanctions from Moscow and pressure from WTO once Russia completes the treaty’s ratification, expected this summer.
Elections First
“Russia has no practical interest in canceling the Jackson-Vanik amendment,” Konstantin Kosachyov, then-State Duma lawmaker with United Russia and deputy head of the international affairs committee at the lower chamber, said in late February.
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U.S. Senate May Discuss Magnitsky Sanctions in April
The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations may discuss in April a 2011 bill to impose sanctions on Russian officials implicated in the detention death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the committee’s chairman John Kerry said.
“I’d like to try to put it on a business meeting for when we return [from the April 2 – April 13 recess], and we should aim to do it,” Kerry said.
Senator Benjamin Cardin introduced the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011” last May, but no legislative action has been taken on it so far. U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said it was redundant as the U.S. already compiled a blacklist of Russian officials linked to Magnitsky’s death, who are subject to a travel ban and asset freeze.
Cardin said his bill should be passed simultaneously with discussions on the abolishment of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, an American piece of legislation from 1974 that introduced economic sanctions against the Soviet Union.
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US Senate panel may vote on Russian human rights bill
Human rights legislation named after an anti-graft lawyer who died in a Russian jail is likely to be considered by a U.S. Senate committee this spring, the panel’s chairman Senator John Kerry said on Tuesday.
The Sergei Magnitsky bill would require the United States to deny visas and freeze the assets of Russians or others with links to his detention and death, as well as those who commit human rights violations against other whistle-blowers like him.
The 2009 death of the 37-year-old Magnitsky, who worked for equity fund Hermitage Capital and died after a year in Russian jails, spooked investors and tarnished Russia’s image. The Kremlin human rights council says he was probably beaten to death.
Before his arrest, he had testified against Russian interior ministry officials during a tax evasion case against Hermitage.
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