Posts Tagged ‘walsh’
Russia forced Ireland’s hand on Magnitsky case
It is rare the joint Oireachtas committee on foreign affairs and trade hits international headlines but that is just what happened in the last week. The normally sleepy committee made its way into the New York Times , the BBC and Russian media as it waded into a high stakes war being waged ever since Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer, died in a Russian jail after uncovering fraud among state officials.
The episode saw the committee consider and then back away from sanctioning Russian officials involved in the death. It has given a stark insight into the rough workings of Russian diplomacy and has pitted Irish families trying to adopt Russian children against international power politics.
The Oireachtas committee kicked off events when US businessman William Browder appeared before it in February describing what had led to the death of Magnitsky, who worked for his firm, Hermitage Capital.
After uncovering the theft by state officials of $230 million in taxes from the firm and testifying against them, Magnitsky was jailed and died a year later, in 2009. Russia’s own human rights council said he was denied medical treatment and was probably beaten to death. “It is my duty to his memory and his family to make sure that justice is done,” Browder told the committee.
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The Kremlin “Beat” the Opposition and Irish Parliament Beat Magnitsky
Vladislav Surkov, the architect of Putin’s “sovereign democracy” idea, and now the deputy prime minister for economic modernization, gave talk at the London School of Economics yesterday in which he said that the Kremlin “beat” the Russian opposition after the December 2011 Duma election protests:
Do you really think that the old system collapsed after the protests in December 2011? No, it beat the opposition. That’s a fact.
Surkov didn’t say how exactly the opposition was defeated, though he said he’d like to see a new political party emerge to rival United Russia (so would Putin). The Kremlin’s grey cardinal, speaking in a lecture hall that was only two-thirds full, seemed more interested in money than politics anyway. He was first asked about allegations of corruption related to the Skolkovo tech-sector project, which was designed to create counterpart to Silicon Valley near Moscow and drum up foreign direct investment in Russia. Although the questioner asked about the activities of the project’s vice president, Surkov dismissed the allegations that $750,000 was stolen as not worth the time or energy of the project’s president (whose net worth is over $15 billion, according to Forbes). The imputation here – that being mega-rich is a disincentive to steal – would be intriguing even if it hadn’t been delivered in the forum of the LSE.
Surkov went on to draw attention to his own sizable fortune, presumably to preempt any follow-up questions (or insinuations) as to whether or not he too is the beneficiary of shady deals:
“I am in the same position. I am not the poorest person after working in the business world for 10 years and I will, if necessary, work there again. I was successful in business before I joined the presidential administration. I was one of the most successful in my field.”
Meanwhile, the Irish parliament’s committee on foreign affairs watered-down the resolution on the Magnitsky case, which I blogged about at World Affairs last week. It passed unanimously today. An earlier version of the motion – modeled on the newly-passed U.S. Magnitsky Act – advocated that Ireland should adopt a law to sanction and deny visas to Russian officials credibly accused of gross human rights violations. It also called on the European Union, of which Ireland currently holds the presidency, to implement similar measures. The new motion is filled with pro forma calls for Russia to “investigate” a criminal conspiracy it has already said never existed or rather, was the brainchild of the man who uncovered it. Sergei Magnitsky, the whistleblower who exposed a $230 million tax fraud and identified the perpetrators as Russian state officials in bed with a transnational organized crime, was arrested, tortured and murdered in prison for his trouble. Now his corpse is being put on trial in Russia to prove his guilt posthumously.
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Irish parliament to drop Magnitsky List plan after warning
The Irish parliament is set to limit its reaction to the Magnitsky affair to a statement of concern, after Russia warned against US-style sanctions.
A motion by its joint foreign affairs committee has been redrafted to say Dublin will seek reassurances from Moscow on its respect for human rights.
Members had advocated blacklisting Russian officials linked to the death of whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky.
Moscow then linked any Irish sanctions to adoptions of Russian children.
Its ambassador to Dublin, Maxim Peshkov, wrote a letter to the foreign affairs committee of the Oireachtas (the Irish houses of parliament) on 11 March saying Russia might stop adoptions by Irish parents if parliament endorsed the Magnitsky Act.
Russia banned Americans from adopting Russian children soon after the US Congress passed the legislation in December.
MPs in several EU countries are considering following the American example.
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Oireachtas committee backs down from sanctioning Russian officials
An Oireachtas committee has backed down from sanctioning Russian officials involved in the death of a lawyer there. A motion to list officials involved in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, freeze their assets and issue visa bans for them has been replaced by a motion which calls on the Government to convey the committee’s concern over the death.
This motion was unanimously passed by the Oireachtas committee on foreign affairs.
The Russian ambassador to Ireland wrote to the committee in March warning that any move to introduce a Magnitsky law could “have negative influence” on an adoption agreement between the two countries.
Pat Breen, Fine Gael TD and chairman of the committee, said after the meeting he “wouldn’t regard as blackmail” the failure by the committee to support sanctions. “We have reached a motion that fulfils our obligations on human rights,” he said.
Fianna Fáil Senator Jim Walsh who proposed the original motion said after the committee meeting he was “disappointed we didn’t have some sanctions”.
“But politics is about achieving compromise,” he added. The approved motion was proposed after Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan proposed an amendment to Mr Walsh’s motion removing the sanctions.
Several members of the committee had been contacted by people trying to adopt Russian children who were fearful the applications could be jeopardised. The Russian government should be “thoroughly ashamed” for “ this use of children”, Independent Senator David Norris told the committee. He had been contacted by one couple who had already adopted a Russian child and wanted to adopt a second child from Russia but were were concerned after reading about the ambassador’s letter. The motion approved by the committee was about “realpolitik”, he said afterwards. “You have to be realistic if you want to get things done,” he added.
The approved motion notes the Russian Human Rights Council’s findings that Mr Magnitsky “died as a result of beatings by prison guards” and the dropping of charges of negligence against two doctors. It calls on the Government to use the EU presidency to highlight its concern over the death.
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Irish Parliament Backs Down on Magnitsky List
An Irish parliamentary committee avoided pushing for a blacklist on Russian officials implicated in rights abuse following a warning that it could jeopardize a bilateral adoption agreement.
The foreign affairs and trade committee passed a resolution urging Irish leadership to express concern over the prison death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, the Irish Times said Thursday.
But it dropped its earlier plans to call for an EU-wide blacklist on officials implicated in the case, similar to the one passed in the United States last year.
Russian Embassy in Dublin said in March the blacklist could “have a negative influence” on the pending adoption agreement, though it later denied making a direct link between the two issues.
Committee head Pat Breen dismissed allegations that the Russian stance amounted to blackmail, while Senator Jim Walsh, who proposed the blacklist, called the resolution a “compromise,” the Irish Times said.
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Russia Using Adoption Leverage in Ireland
The Russian government has warned in a letter to Ireland’s Parliament that it may halt negotiations on an agreement for cross-border adoptions if an Irish parliamentary committee approves a resolution critical of rights abuses in Russia.
The letter signals Russia is ready to wield adoption policies as leverage to discourage Western criticism of human rights abuses in Russia with countries other than the United States, where an adoption ban took effect late last year.
The United States Congress passed the Magnitsky Law that banned travel to the United States and ordered the seizure of assets of Russian officials suspected of ties to the death in prison of the lawyer Sergei L. Magnitsky, and other officials suspected of corruption and rights abuses.
In response, Russia’s Parliament passed the Dima Yakovlev Law that bans American couples from adoption of Russian orphans. It is named for a Russian toddler who died after he had been left in a hot car by his adoptive American father.
The letter to Ireland’s lawmakers suggested Russia would proceed with this tactic despite criticism that it harms the interests of the country’s orphans, while also dashing the hopes of prospective adoptive parents abroad, who form an emotional and motivated constituency to influence elected officials. But the Kremlin, much diminished in its foreign policy reach since the end of the cold war, has few other levers of influence left.
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Moscow uses Irish adoption threat to block use of Magnitsky list
Russia has threatened to block Irish adoptions of Russian children if the Dublin parliament adopts a US-style “Magnitsky List” imposing sanctions on Russian officials.
Moscow barred US citizens from adopting Russians in retaliation for the US Congress passing the Magnitsky Act last December, marking a chill in transatlantic relations. The act imposed visa bans and asset freezes on officials allegedly connected with the 2009 death in jail of the anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
The warning to Ireland, in a letter from Russia’s ambassador to the parliament’s foreign affairs and trade committee, is the first time Moscow has threatened similar action against another country.
It appears designed to head off attempts to persuade other EU states to adopt Magnitsky measures. Ireland holds the EU presidency, and a draft motion before the committee last month called on the government to use that role “to impose EU-wide visa sanctions”.
The March 11 letter from Maxim Peshkov, a career diplomat, warns that steps by Ireland towards adopting such sanctions “can have negative influence on the negotiations on the Adoption Agreement between Russia and Ireland being proceeded”.
The Russian embassy in Dublin on Thursday declined to connect calls to Mr Peshkov, saying the embassy was “closed for technical reasons”.
Bill Browder, the formerly Russian-based fund manager who employed Magnitsky and has led the campaign to bring those linked to his death to justice, said the letter was an “attack on Irish democracy”.
“Even though Ireland is a small country, the fact that they are [EU] president means they have a hugely disproportionate voice, for a fixed period,” he said. “The Irish parliamentarians have interpreted this as a threat to their adoptions.”
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Russia threatens Ireland with adoption ban
Russia has threatened to impose a US-type adoption ban on EU presidency country Ireland if its MPs pass a tough resolution on the late anti-corruption activist Sergei Magnitsky.
Its ambassador in Dublin, Maxim Peshkov, made the threat in a letter to deputies on the Irish parliament’s foreign affairs and trade committee dated 11 March and seen by EUobserver.
Referring to the committee’s draft resolution of 4 March, which urged the Irish EU presidency to push for an EU-level visa ban on Magnitsky’s alleged tormentors, Peshkov said: “This approach … can have negative influence on the negotiation of the Adoption Agreement between Russia and Ireland being proceeded.”
Magnitsky, a Russian accountant, died in pre-trial detention in prison in 2009 after exposing a scam by Russian officials to embezzle $230 million from the Russian treasury.
His former employer, UK-based investment fund Hermitage Capital, has amassed evidence that prison guards starved him of pancreatic medication and subjected him to a brutal beating in the final hours of his life.
Its case was strong enough for the US to impose sanctions on 18 Russian officials earlier this month.
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‘Spectacular attack’ on Oireachtas committee over plan to sanction Russian officials
A “spectacular attack” has been launched on Irish democracy by Russia over attempts to get a law dropped which would sanction officials responsible for the death of a lawyer who uncovered corruption, a US businessman has warned.
Russia has warned the joint Oireachtas committee on foreign affairs and trade it could stop Irish adoptions of Russian children if it today supports the law, which has been introduced in the US, Canada and Italy, William Browder has said.
Mr Browder visited the committee in February and urged members to adopt the law, which sanctions Russian officials allegedly responsible for the death of his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, in 2009.
A letter to the committee in March by the Russian embassy in Dublin states a move towards enacting such a law “can have negative influence on the negotiations on the adoption agreement between Russia and Ireland being proceeded”.
An original motion by Fianna Fáil Senator Jim Walsh is to go before the committee today supporting a law which would list a number of individuals for asset freezes and visa bans. But an amendment is also to be proposed by Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan which drops references to such sanctions.
“If this goes ahead it would be a spectacular attack on Irish democracy,” Mr Browder told The Irish Times . “It would be a sad day for Irish democracy.”
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