Posts Tagged ‘McFaul’
Congress Needs Human Rights Assurances To Support Russia MFN Vote
There is a growing sense in Washington that members of Congress will need assurances on human rights if they are to agree to grant Russia permanent most-favored nation (MFN) status, which is necessary if U.S. companies are to fully benefit from Russia acceding to the World Trade Organization.
In a July 7 statement, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) argued that extending permanent MFN and ushering Russia into the WTO is “simply not an option” until Russia is pressed to improve its human rights record. A congressional aide said this sentiment is shared by other members of Congress.
According to an informed source, the White House opposes directly linking improvements in Russia’s human rights situation to Russia’s WTO accession, but since January has nonetheless been advancing the idea that Congress should consider separate human rights legislation this year.
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In U.S.-Russia Dialogue On Human Rights, A Tougher Tone Comes Through
The latest session of a high-ranking U.S.-Russia dialogue on human rights included frank exchanges on press freedom and corruption, according to a senior U.S. official who participated in the talks.
Michael McFaul, senior director of Russian and Eurasian affairs on the U.S. president’s National Security Council, described the talks in an interview with RFE/RL.
The U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission’s Civil Society Working Group, established two years ago as part of the “reset” in U.S.-Russia relations, brings together officials and representatives of nongovernmental organizations from both countries. McFaul, who will reportedly be nominated by President Barack Obama to be America’s next ambassador to Russia, holds the chair for the U.S. side. His Russian counterpart, Vladislav Surkov, is first deputy chairman in the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
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Reset on the Ropes?
Earlier today, Republican Rep. Peter Roskam, deputy whip in the House, put out a statement signaling his support for the Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act.
“As the Obama administration continues its efforts to ‘reset’ relations with Russia, the United States Congress can and must press for progress on democracy and rule of law in Russia,” said Congressman Peter Roskam. “Congress is considering legislation with bipartisan support that would impose targeted sanctions on Russian officials complicit in human rights and rule of law violations like the murder of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer working to uncover official corruption, and businessmen like Khodorkovsky. I plan to support such legislation and hope to see it become law.”
The Magnitsky Act, which has been introduced in the Senate by Democratic senator Ben Cardin with broad bipartisan support, including cosponsorship by leadership in both parties (Kyl and Durbin), has support from some of the usual suspects (Lieberman and McCain), and even some of the newest members (Blumenthal and Rubio). The bill would require the Obama administration to compile a list of officials and individuals in Russia who have been complicit in human rights and rule of law violations. Those who make the list would be blacklisted from entering the United States, and their assets and bank accounts in the United States would be frozen.
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Surkov, McFaul talk corruption
First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, Vladislav Surkov, traveled to Washington D.C. to discuss child protection, migration and anti-corruption and prison reform efforts as part of the U.S. – Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission Civil Society Working Group – while discussion of the ongoing controversy over the death of Sergei Magnitsky was apparently left off the table.
The Russian delegation, comrpised of officials and human rights activists, arrived in Washington on Tuesday, June 6. The participants were divided into subgroups, each of which dealt with one specific issue. “Some visited prisons, some focused on child abuse,” said Yana Yakovleva, a representative of Business-Solidarnost, a participating community organization aimed at protecting entrepreneurs. “Basically, it was a sharing experience and an exchange of views.”
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Lawmakers introduce Russian “reset”; Russian political prisoners’ appeal denied
Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the imprisoned former oil tycoon, lost an appeal of his second conviction for fraud Tuesday, but his sentence was cut by a year and now will end in 2016.
Khodorkovsky and his business partner and fellow defendant, Platon Lebedev, had been convicted in December of embezzling nearly $30 billion from Yukos, the oil company they ran. Khodorkovsky had antagonized Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and the charges were widely considered not only politically motivated but also legally dubious.
Khodorkovsky, to the applause of the courtroom crowd, had this stem-winder statement on the court’s ruling:
In what dusty cellar did they dig up that poisonous Stalinist spider who wrote this drivel?
What kind of long-term investments can one talk about with such justice?
No modernization will succeed without a purging of these cellars.
The authors of the verdict have shown both themselves and the judicial system of Russia in an idiotic light, having declared in a high-profile, public trial that in Russia injured parties from a theft receive a profit, that the aspiration to increase it is a crime, that the “right” prices for oil in Siberia must be equal to the prices in Western Europe, transportation, customs duties and restrictedness of export notwithstanding.
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No Entry: Will Congress take a tough line on human rights abusers in Russia?
In 2007, a Russian businessman named Oleg Derapaska applied for a multiple-entry visa to enter the United States. Derapaska certainly had some impressive credentials—he is one of the richest men in Russia, with a fortune of $10.7 billion as of 2010, which he made initially by cornering Russia’s aluminum market. He is well traveled, and is the owner of a £25 million home in the Belgravia neighborhood of London. The State Department nevertheless turned him down (though it did grant him a one-time entry visa in 2009). Derapaska’s visa troubles stemmed from allegations that he also has close ties to Russia’s mafia, according to the Wall Street Journal and other news outlets. Although he has been seeking the multiple-entry visa ever since—last year, the Russian foreign ministry even hired the Endeavor Group, the same lobbying firm that represents Angelina Jolie, to help secure him one—so far his efforts have been futile.
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