Obama lets Russia get away with murder

New York Daily News

Last Thursday, the governments of Russia and China vetoed yet another United Nations Security Council resolution that would have put sanctions on the crumbling Syrian regime of Bashar Assad. The two authoritarian powers, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “are on the wrong side of history.”

This term has become a favorite expression of the Obama administration. In the past year, both Secretary of State Clinton and UN Ambassador Susan Rice have used the language to describe Russian and Chinese intransigence against sanctioning Assad.

Correct as the description may be, however, it is trite coming from an administration that has lobbied hard to water down legislation aimed at putting pressure on Assad’s most important friend: Russian President-for-life Vladimir Putin. Indeed, while it continually castigates the Russians for opposing sanctions on Assad, it appears that the Obama administration, too, will be “on the wrong side of history.”

Last week, the Senate Finance Committee passed the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, named for the brave Russian lawyer who was arrested, tortured and killed by Russian authorities after exposing a $230 million tax fraud scheme perpetrated by the Kremlin. Magnitsky was denied medical treatment and subjected to worsening conditions and ever more squalid cells. He conveniently passed away in pretrial detention on Nov. 16, 2009, eight days before the one-year mark when the Russian government would have been forced to either try or release him.

The posthumously named law levies visa bans and asset freezes on individuals involved in human rights violations, like the 60 or so Russian officials believed to be responsible for the death of Magnitsky.
It would also penalize those behind the death of Vasily Aleksanyan, a lawyer for the oil giant Yukos, which Putin targeted after its CEO, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, began funding an opposition political movement.
Aleksanyan was arrested in 2006 on politicized charges and, after refusing to offer false testimony against Khodorkovsky and others, mysteriously contracted HIV while in prison. He died last year after Russian prison authorities denied him medical treatment, like they did Magnitsky.

The progress of the Magnitsky act — which has overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress — has been in spite of the administration. It has opposed passage of the act, claiming it redundant in light of its own, secret list of Russian officials already under sanction.

Trumpeting a confidential list ignores the purpose of the bill, however, which is to “name and shame” individuals who violate the rule of law and the rights of their people.

Indeed, the administration opposes the whole notion of “linkage” between the improvement of human rights and bettering economic ties with Russia, a principle that has underscored American-Russian relations for decades.

The White House has been pushing to establish “Permanent Normal Trade Relations” with Russia, a move that Congress will approve only if tied to passage of the Magnitsky act. Not surprisingly, the bill is unpopular with the powers that be in Moscow, who last week sent a delegation of Russian lawmakers to Washington threatening retaliation if Congress passes the law.

Like Moscow, the Obama administration sees the Magnitsky act and other measures aimed at punishing Putin as standing in the way of its much-vaunted “reset” policy. That initiative sought better relations with Russia on a host of issues, from cooperation in stalling the Iranian nuclear program to reducing tensions over the nations in the former Soviet space, in exchange for passage of the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty, signed by the President in 2010. But, at least for the United States, the “reset” has been an unmitigated failure.

This failure is attributable to the nature of the Putin regime, which is little more than a Mafia state. Over the past 10 years, Russia has sold $5 billion worth of arms to Iran and has used its veto at the Security Council to prevent passage of meaningful UN sanctions against Tehran’s nuclear program. Russia has increased its troop presence in Georgia, the small neighbor it invaded in 2008. And it continues to ramp up repression against the domestic opposition, particularly in the wake of botched legislative elections last year and presidential elections this year.

The deaths of Magnitsky and Aleksanyan, as well as those of other Russian human rights activists and journalists, have become so frequent as to form a trend known as “Death by Russia.” One can add to the list of Putin’s victims the thousands of Syrians murdered by Assad, who continues to receive diplomatic cover and weaponry from Moscow, not to mention the many Iranians imprisoned, tortured and killed by the mullahs.

The next time an Obama administration official preaches that Russia risks ending up on “the wrong side of history,” he or she ought to look in the mirror first.

Kirchick is a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. займы онлайн на карту срочно займы без отказа www.zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/apply-for-payday-loan-online.php займ на карту