Our Friends the Russians: The State Department and John Kerry still believe in the ‘reset’

Wall Street Journal

In its latest display of political retribution, the Kremlin is putting a human-rights lawyer and corruption whistleblower on trial for tax evasion. The notable news here is that Sergei Magnitsky died in police custody two years ago. His prosecution is a poke in the eye of the man’s family, the U.S. and the rule of law in Russia.

Magnitsky worked for an American law firm in Moscow whose clients included a Jewish rights group and the investment house Hermitage Capital. In 2008 he uncovered evidence of police corruption and embezzlement. The police promptly put him in prison, claiming he had helped Hermitage evade taxes. Eleven months later, he died.

A Russian government committee found that Magnitsky was beaten and denied treatment for pancreatitis and recommended that his prison doctors and interrogators be investigated. This didn’t happen. Instead, with the Kremlin’s blessing, the police last summer reopened the case against a dead man and have now announced plans for a trial.

Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat who has followed the case, wants to freeze the assets of Russian officials implicated in his death and ban them from entering the U.S. Twenty-nine Senators from both parties have co-sponsored his bill, which was introduced in 2010.

Now would be a good time to revive the measure, but the State Department is opposed and Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry has refused to schedule a hearing. It’s an open secret that Mr. Kerry wants Hillary Clinton’s job in a second Obama Administration. So his committee calendar fills up with items like the Haiti Reforestation Act.

Mr. Kerry is still carrying water for President Obama’s Russian “reset” policy. Don’t they follow the news? In recent months, Russian leaders have stoked anti-Americanism, threatened NATO with nuclear-missile strikes, armed and protected Syria’s Bashar Assad, stolen parliamentary elections and repressed domestic opponents ahead of next month’s restoration of Vladimir Putin to the presidency. It’s never easy to admit a policy mistake, but this is embarrassing. займ онлайн на карту без отказа payday loan https://zp-pdl.com/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php zp-pdl.com займ на карту без отказов круглосуточно