Posts Tagged ‘mike sigov’
Russian orphans pay price for Putin’s new cold war
Many Russians are celebrating New Year’s Eve today. By the Julian calendar — still recognized by the Orthodox Church — it falls on Jan. 13.
Not celebrating are Russian orphans, particularly those with life-threatening illnesses. Many of them will die this year from lack of adequate care after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill that bans U.S. adoptions of Russian children.
There are at least 740,000 orphaned or abandoned children in Russia, by U.N. estimates. Many of them die of illness or commit suicide, news of which sometimes trickles even into the Kremlin-controlled media. About 1 percent of those children get adopted annually. About half of the adopted children used to go to foreign homes, mostly American.
Enter Mr. Putin, who signed the bill Jan. 1 — as a New Year gift to Russia’s corrupt bureaucracy.
Before he did that, he announced at a press conference in Moscow that the parliament had passed the ban in response to recent U.S. legislation — the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 it considers anti-Russian.
Named after a Russian lawyer who exposed a $230 million embezzlement by the Russian establishment and subsequently died in custody, it prohibits corrupt bureaucrats from getting U.S. visas and freezes their U.S. accounts.
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U.S. human-rights measure puts Russia on notice
Finally, there is good news for politically disenfranchised liberals in Russia and for U.S.-Russian relations in the long run.
And that’s not because of Russia’s long-coveted admission to the World Trade Organization next month or the expected scrapping of a Cold War-era law restricting Russian trade with the United States.
Under the boot of Russian President Vladimir Putin for most of the past 12 years, Russian liberals looked with hope to the U.S. Congress to approve a new human-rights bill that would replace the old.
A bill that ties up the scrapping of the old provision — the Jackson-Vanik Amendment — with the adoption of the new one — the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act — was approved in a 24-0 vote earlier this month by the Senate Finance Committee, which gives hope that it will sail through the full Congress.
The 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment that denies Russia normal trade relations has been routinely waived by U.S. presidents since 1992, following the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act would deny American visas to corrupt officials and human-rights violators and freeze their U.S. bank accounts. Prompted by a notorious quarter-billion-dollar corruption scandal in Russia, the Magnitsky bill would cover all foreign nations.
A lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management, once the largest foreign investor in Russia, Mr. Magnitsky died in police custody on false charges of tax avoidance after he was arrested for alleging a $230 million state-orchestrated fraud that he had uncovered.
It is critical that the bill is passed despite opposition from the Kremlin and the White House, which is interested in keeping up appearances in this election year.
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Washington must keep pressure on the Kremlin
Published: 4/22/2012 BY MIKE SIGOV
Russia has become a U.S. presidential election issue, with some American politicians exaggerating the challenge the country presents to the world’s leading power and others playing it down.
Those seriously pondering the U.S. policy toward Russia may consider a human-rights bill that, if passed, would impose sanctions on corrupt Russian officials implicated in the prison death of a Russian lawyer. The bill also would target any other known corrupt bureaucrats, be it in Russia or any foreign country.
Neither a friend nor a foe, Russia has so far responded fairly well to the carrot-and-stick treatment. But the old carrot — a long-coveted accession to the World Trade Organization — is already being fed to Russia. And the old whip — the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment that denies Russia the most favored nation trade status — became outdated with the downfall of the Soviet Union and is bound to be repealed soon so that U.S. companies trading with Russia aren’t at a disadvantage.
The human-rights bill — the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011 — would freeze U.S. bank accounts and deny American visas to corrupt officials and human-rights violators anywhere in the world, Russia included.
Such a whip is bound to be effective. After all, it is not Russia’s proteges such as Iran, North Korea, or Syria where Russian bureaucrats like to keep their money, educate their children, or buy real estate but the United Kingdom and the United States.
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U.S. shouldn’t overrate Russian gamesmanship
Beware of Russians bearing gifts.
But not too much.
Disguised as a goodwill gesture, Russia’s plan to restart nuclear talks with Iran is in fact a tit-for-tat ploy. It is designed to annoy the United States for imposing visa restrictions last month on Russian officials implicated in the death of a lawyer who had unearthed evidence of massive corruption perpetrated by the regime of Russian Prime Minster Vladimir Putin, who previously served as president.
The plan is Russia’s barely veiled threat to drop its reluctant support of international sanctions imposed on Iran for its apparent efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
It is not the first time Russia has tried to spite Washington in the wake of the visa restrictions imposed after a lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management, once the largest foreign investor in Russia, died in police custody on trumped-up charges of tax avoidance. In fact, he was arrested for alleging a $230 million state-orchestrated fraud.
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