Posts Tagged ‘WSJ’
Sergei’s Law: A Congressional victory for trade and human rights in U.S. relations with Russia.
Bravo, Congress. Seriously. The House has earned this praise after Friday’s legislative victory for trade and human rights.
Passed with a rare bipartisan majority of 365 to 43, H.R. 6165 “normalizes” trade ties with Russia by retiring Jackson-Vanik, a landmark 1974 law that pressed the Soviet Union to liberalize Jewish emigration during the Cold War. The bill will let American investors take advantage of lower tariffs and better protections for intellectual property from Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization this summer.
But the law will be forever and justly associated with Sergei Magnitsky. The House voted on the third anniversary of the anticorruption activist’s death in a Moscow jail, after months of torture and neglect. Title IV of the trade measure bans Russian officials who commit such abuses from traveling or banking in the U.S. The “Magnitsky Act” is the most consequential piece of human-rights legislation since Jackson-Vanik, and a worthy successor.
The law grew out of the tireless lobbying of William Browder, an American investor who employed Magnitsky, and the persistence of Senator Ben Cardin, the Maryland Democrat who introduced the bill in 2010. It went nowhere at first, as the Obama Administration opposed sanctions in the name of protecting its “reset” in relations with Russia, and Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry did his best to kill the Magnitsky provision despite bipartisan support.
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Russian Riled By Parliament
Members of the European Parliament may struggle sometimes to get their voice heard inside the European Union, but they’re doing a good job of riling their Russian counterparts.
Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the state Duma, contrasted the “realistic pragmatic approach” from the European Commission to the relationship with Russia to that it has with “the ideological institutions like the European Parliament.”
“There are quite a few people in the European Parliament who think the more they take decisions that irritate Russia the best it is for Europe. I’m not of this opinion. There is some kind of ideological wave which is unfurling over Europe, and it’s a very negative wave,” Mr. Pushkov told a group of academics and journalists in Moscow.
On Tuesday, the parliament adopted a recommendation calling on EU governments to implement sanctions on a list of officials responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a subsequent judicial cover-up and for the ongoing harassment of his mother and wife. The parliament recommended banning those people from entry into the EU, freezing their assets in the EU, and called on Russia to launch an independent investigation into his death.
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Putin Does His Own ‘Reset’
Democrats and the media who love them have ridiculed Mitt Romney for saying Russia is America’s “number one geopolitical foe,” and Vladimir Putin recently all but endorsed President Obama for re-election. But the Russian President keeps behaving in ways that prove the Republican had a point.
In the latest slap to America, the Kremlin announced this week it is expelling the U.S. Agency for International Development. The aid arm of the State Department has spent almost $3 billion in the last two decades to feed and modernize Russia and, in recent years, promote human rights and free elections. The relatively small $50 million annual program will close October 1. Justifying the move, the Russian foreign ministry on Wednesday accused the U.S. of trying “to influence political processes, including elections of various types.”
Among the groups that get American assistance is Golos, which has exposed the Kremlin’s electoral fraud. Golos and other NGOs will be hard-pressed to find new funding. Russians are reluctant to support democratic groups, lest they end up like oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in a Siberian prison.
Stunned by large pro-democracy protests in Moscow and other cities last winter and spring, the Kremlin has cracked down. Anyone who takes a penny from an outside source is now branded a “foreign agent.” Penalties for public protests are stiffer. Prosecutors are dredging up criminal cases against activists, and more show trials are coming.
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Russia Demands U.S. Agency Halt Work
The Kremlin sounded its stiffest rebuke to U.S. democracy-building efforts in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, ordering the U.S. to halt work of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Russia by Oct. 1.
The move is a blow to the Obama administration’s avowed “reset” in relations between the U.S. and Russia, prompting leading Republicans to demand a strong U.S. response. The decision also adds Russia to the list of countries such as Egypt whose leaders, seeing disorder at home, have singled out U.S.-funded democracy-building programs for blame.
The U.S. State Department confirmed Tuesday it had received the Russian government’s decision to end USAID’s activities in the country. The Kremlin didn’t respond to calls to comment.
USAID, created in 1961 to promote democracy, human rights and public health, now works in more than 100 countries. With approximately 70 U.S. and local staff members in Russia, it has provided a backbone to U.S. efforts to foster a Western-style political system in the country.
Russian leaders, and President Vladimir Putin in particular, have been leery of U.S. support for democracy movements ever since the so-called color revolutions in Eastern Europe, and more so in the wake of the Arab Spring. Mr. Putin once described Russian NGOs that accept U.S. aid as “jackals.” Last December, he engaged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a public and heated exchange after she described Russian elections as flawed.
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Of Putin and Punks
Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin has become expert at using the power of the courts to break opponents and crush political dissent. In the latest episode, the three young women of the “Pussy Riot” punk band were sentenced Friday to two years in prison for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.”
The women were arrested in March for performing an anti-Putin stunt inside the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, where they beseeched “Virgin Mary, drive away drive away Putin!” The clips went viral on YouTube, which is what really must have irked the Kremlin.
Following the method of Putin justice, the court barred much defense testimony, though it allowed prosecution witnesses who had not been at the cathedral. The judge on Friday took more than three hours to read the verdict, which included detailed descriptions of the shape of the defendants’ heads. According to the live-tweets of reporter Simon Shuster, the judge also noted their “mixed psychological disorders” that include “individualism, stubborn expression of opinions, unwillingness to cede positions.”
The proceedings were no less farcical than those that have kept oil tycoon and Putin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky behind bars since 2003. And the trial follows the recent indictment of Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption blogger and lawyer, on charges of embezzling money from a state company. Mr. Navalny faces between five and 10 years in prison, though the charges against him were investigated and dropped twice by regional prosecutors. He has become a Putin target because his writings are a focal point for the growing protests against the authoritarian regime.
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When Putin’s Thugs Came for Me
The only surprise to come out of Friday’s guilty verdict in the trial here of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot was how many people acted surprised. Three young women were sentenced to two years in prison for the prank of singing an anti-Putin “prayer” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Their jailing was the next logical step for Vladimir Putin’s steady crackdown on “acts against the social order,” the Kremlin’s expansive term for any public display of resistance.
In the 100 days since Mr. Putin’s re-election as president, severe new laws against public protest have been passed and the homes of opposition leaders have been raided. These are not the actions of a regime prepared to grant leniency to anyone who offends Mr. Putin’s latest ally, the Orthodox Church and its patriarch.
Unfortunately, I was not there to hear the judge’s decision, which she took hours to read. The crowds outside the court building made entry nearly impossible, so I stood in a doorway and took questions from journalists. Suddenly, I was dragged away by a group of police—in fact carried away with one policeman on each arm and leg.
The men refused to tell me why I was being arrested and shoved me into a police van. When I got up to again ask why I had been detained, things turned violent. I was restrained, choked and struck several times by a group of officers before being driven to the police station with dozens of other protesters. After several hours I was released, but not before they told me I was being criminally investigated for assaulting a police officer who claimed I had bitten him.
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The Russia Trade Pile-Up
So how can legislation supported by business groups, democracy activists, Senate Democrats, House Republicans and the Obama Administration be in danger of failing? Answer: Only in Washington.
That’s where things stand with a bill to normalize trade with Russia that includes a provision to sanction gross abusers of human rights. Early last week all looked good. Montana Democrat Max Baucus and Arizona Republican Jon Kyl crafted a compromise in the Senate Finance Committee that’s ready for a floor vote. Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp and ranking Democrat Sander Levin knocked together a House version in a few hours.
Then on Monday every House Member received a letter from the United Steelworkers and the Communication Workers of America. The unions called the bill “woefully deficient” in enforcing Russian compliance with World Trade Organization rules. This is false, since Russia will join the WTO on August 22 no matter what, and failure to adopt “permanent normal trade relations” would only hurt U.S. companies in Russia. Yet Democratic support notably softened.
Meanwhile, the Administration has been missing in action. President Obama hasn’t pressed Members, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton isn’t lobbying the Hill. We’re told that when he met with House Democrats on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stressed taxes but not this ostensibly high trade priority.
White House enthusiasm has ebbed since the Senate overrode its objections and added the Magnitsky Act, which bans Russian rights abusers from visiting or banking in the U.S. Mr. Obama also may not want to push a bill disliked by unions and that some criticize unfairly as rewarding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bad behavior. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hasn’t committed to a floor vote before the August recess.
If Democratic leaders won’t lead, then some Republicans ask why they should. After the Ways and Means voice vote, Speaker John Boehner scotched quick House floor action. “If the president really thinks this is an important issue that we have to deal with, then maybe he ought to be out there making the case for it,” he said. “I haven’t seen that as yet.”
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Russia Trade Bill Set to Advance in U.S. Senate, But Passage by August Recess Uncertain
A Senate panel appears headed to back Wednesday the lifting of trade restrictions on Russia, but the White House faces an uphill battle in its effort to win congressional approval before its long-time geopolitical rival joins the World Trade Organization as expected next month.
Several senators and private-sector supporters of legislation to approve permanent, normal trade relations with Russia said the bill is likely to clear its first major hurdle, by winning the backing of the Senate Finance Committee.
But a number of senators cast doubt on whether Congress can pass the bill before lawmakers leave town in early August for recess, raising the risk that U.S. companies will be put at a competitive disadvantage in trying to win Russian business. Rising tensions with Russia over Syria, Iran and human rights issues are complicating passage, with senators of both parties looking to attach measures to the trade bill to punish Russian human-rights violators.
“I’m very concerned about the human rights abuses and the bad behavior of Russia,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas.) Still, he and Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.), the minority whip, predicted the Finance Committee would approve the bill.
“I think things are fairly well resolved, that the (trade bill) would be accompanied by the Magnitsky legislation,” said Mr. Kyl. He was referring to a measure, named after a Russian lawyer who died in prison after accusing Russian government officials of fraud, that would freeze assets and deny visas to Russian human-rights abusers.
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USTR’s Kirk, Rep. Camp Call For Russia Trade Bill Without Human Rights
Obama administration officials and a key House Republican Wednesday issued a similar message to Congress on the urgency of lifting trade restrictions on Russia, saying the bill should be passed quickly and without including human rights or other provisions.
However, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means committee said the so-called “Magnitsky” bill punishing Russian human-rights violators should be included in any trade legislation, while arguing that the House should hold up on approving the bill until Russia takes steps to help contain the conflict in Syria.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told the House panel that lawmakers should act by Aug. 22 or risk putting U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage when Russia formally joins the World Trade Organization by that date.
“Our priority is for Congress to terminate the Cold-War era Jackson-Vanik amendment as it applies to Russia in a clean bill that enables us to maintain our competitive edge,” Mr. Kirk said in prepared remarks at the hearing. Repealing Jackson-Vanik, a 1974 measure that prevents the U.S. from granting most-favored-nation status to countries that restrict emigration, won’t be a “gift” to Russia, he insisted.
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