Posts Tagged ‘washington post’
U.S. must maintain way to press Putin regime on human rights
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Washington Post
Having Campaigned on a platform of anti-Americanism, Vladimir Putin likely will be proclaimed the winner of Sunday’s presidential election in Russia, giving him a new six-year mandate — and likely inaugurating an era of unrest in a nation whose rising middle class rejects him. The United States, which has focused on cutting deals with Mr. Putin while largely ignoring his autocratic domestic policies, now has a clear interest in encouraging the emerging mass movement demanding democratic reform.
It’s therefore unfortunate that the Obama administration’s first initiative after Mr. Putin’s return to the presidency will be to lobby Congress to grant Russia permanent trade privileges. The problem is not the preferences, per se; it is the administration’s resistance to replacing an outdated protocol for pressing Moscow on human rights with one suited to this moment.
The White House is seeking the repeal of a 1974 law known as Jackson-Vanik, which links the trade preferences for Russia to free emigration. Repeal is logical for a couple of reasons: Russia, unlike the former Soviet Union, does not restrict the exit of Jews and others; and if the law is not removed, U.S. companies will be penalized after Russia enters the World Trade Organization later this year.
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Baucus meets Medvedev ahead of Russia trade debate
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is on his way back from Russia after meeting with outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev, just months before a congressional debate over whether to establish permanent normalized trade relations with Moscow.
The visit was highly coordinated with the Obama administration, according to an aide to Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Baucus is anticipating a debate over granting Russia permanent normalized trade relations (PNTR) status — which would also require the repeal of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment — sometime this spring or summer. By then, Russia will be a full member of the World Trade Organization, and U.S. businesses would be at a disadvantage in doing business in Russia if the PNTR issue is not resolved, according to Baucus.
“Expanding trade with Russia could mean billions of dollars of new opportunities for American businesses, ranchers and farmers and create thousands of jobs here at home. But Russia has to play by the rules, and having Russia in the WTO will help to make that happen,” the senator said in a statement.
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Time to increase pressure on Putin
Tomorrow in the European Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, a number of activists will testify on Russian human rights abuses and pending legislation that would bar them from entering the U.S. Those testifying include The Post’s Robert Kagan (from the Brookings Institute), David Kramer of Freedom House, and Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch. In advance of the hearing, a group of human rights activists sent an open letter to the subcommittee which reads in part:
We are writing to encourage action to address widespread and egregious violations of human rights in the Russian Federation contrary to international commitments. For too long, there has been a culture of impunity for Russian officials involved in human rights violations. Many of these cases – such as the death of Sergei Magnitsky, an attorney investigating official corruption, and the trials and incarceration of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a successful businessman and regime critic – are well known outside of Russia. Many others are not. We raise our voices on behalf of all Russians who have suffered serious human rights abuses by the government.
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Public scoff’s over president’s online bid to probe vote fraud
President Dmitry Medvedev used his Facebook page Sunday to disclose that he had ordered an investigation into reports of election fraud, a statement his audience greeted with derision.
The posting quickly went viral, and drew more than 8,000 mostly offended and even offensive comments in a little over six hours, revealing the depth of the disillusionment with Mr. Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and their government. Tens of thousands of Russians spoke up in demonstrations across the country Saturday, protesting the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections, and they apparently had no intention of returning to their former silence.
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Human rights activist shows government what she really thinks
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a human rights activist and one of the founders of the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group, made this gesture during a news conference dealing with the investigation of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death, in Moscow.
Sergei Magnitsky was arrested after accusing Interior Ministry officials of corruption and died in custody in 2009.
Magnitsky, 37, had accused the Interior Ministry officials of using false tax documents to steal $230 million from the state.
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Seeking guilty in Russian whistleblower’s death
If the legal system here worked, a 75-page report titled “The Torture and Murder of Sergei Magnitsky and the Coverup by the Russian Government” would be submitted to a court of law. Instead, it is being delivered Monday to the court of international opinion.
The report, full of links to official documents and the result of a thousand man-hours of work, comes not from officers of the law but an American-born businessman who is convinced that Russian officials are getting away with murder.
William F. Browder, who runs an investment firm based in London, has taken on the role of virtual prosecutor in the death of Sergei L. Magnitsky, who died at the age of 37 in police custody because of his work as a tax adviser to Browder’s Hermitage Capital Management when it operated in Russia.
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Investigation against Russian lawyer who died in jail extended despite his family’s pleas
Russian investigators on Thursday declined to close a probe against a Russian lawyer who died in jail of an untreated illness, extending the investigation by another two months despite his family’s pleas to end it.
Sergei Magnitsky died of an untreated pancreatitis in November 2009 after spending almost a year in a Moscow jail on tax evasion charges. Investors working in Russia have said the lawyer’s death and allegations of torture highlight corruption in the judicial system and presents a litmus test for President Dmitry Medvedev’s pledge to cement the rule of law in the country.
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Laws to rein in Russia’s pretrial detention system are ignored
Over the last 18 months, President Dmitry Medvedev has signed two laws meant to rein in Russia’s notorious pretrial detention system, an institution often used to extract bribes and enforce widespread corruption. He has been trying to make the country more governable and conducive to business.
Medvedev sought to discourage police, prosecutors and judges from throwing businesspeople into jail on false charges, often in return for bribes from competitors bent on destroying a rival.
But the system quickly proved itself more powerful than the president. The laws were ignored. Yet another of Medvedev’s promised reforms would go unkept, and Russians would remain fearful of their courts and police.
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Russians said to call off U.S. trip after backlash
Two Russian generals have called off plans to travel to Washington, according to the group that invited them, following a backlash over their alleged involvement in the case of a whistleblowing lawyer who died in a Moscow jail.
The lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died two years ago, but fallout from his death has reverberated in U.S.-Russian relations, with repeated allegations that officials were culpable in his death and later covered up their role. The allegations have fueled calls for accountability from rights groups and U.S. officials.
When word surfaced that two generals tied to the case were headed to Washington next week for a conference on intellectual property rights, a pair of U.S. senators balked, urging the State Department to reconsider allowing their entry to the country.
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