Posts Tagged ‘Magnitsky bill’
State Department Sends Mixed Message on Rights Bill
The Moscow Times
25 April 2012
The U.S. State Department says it is in favor of punishing Russian officials implicated in human rights abuses, but does not necessarily support a congressional bill designed for that aim.
Asked if the department encouraged or discouraged the so-called “Magnitsky bill,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said late Tuesday that “we do support the goals of the legislation,” according to the state department’s website.
Nuland also said it was wrong to link the bill to a repeal of the Jackson-Vanik legislation, something that is pitting President Barack Obama against a number U.S. lawmakers.
The bill is motivated by the death of Sergei Magnitsky, whose supporters say he was tortured to death in jail.
It was resubmitted to the House of Representatives last week, prompting Moscow’s Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak to warn that it would significantly hurt ties with Washington.
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Cardin Expects ‘Macho’ Russian Response To Magnitsky Bill
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty
By Richard Solash
April 19, 2012
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin (Democrat-Maryland) says he expects a “macho” response from Moscow should Congress pass legislation punishing Russian officials implicated in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
“We fully expect that there will be some reactions that are going to try to show [Russian] macho-ness rather than dealing with [human rights],” the senator said on April 19 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think-tank.
Cardin last year introduced legislation that would ban visas for and freeze the assets of some 60 Russians connected with the Magnitsky case, which has become an international symbol of Russia’s human rights failings.
The lawyer died in jail in 2009 at the age of 37 after implicating top Russian officials in a complex scheme to defraud the government.
Independent investigations have found that Magnitsky was repeatedly denied medical care and beaten before his death.
Moscow is currently prosecuting only one low-level prison official in the case, amid allegations of a cover-up.
Independent of the legislation, the U.S. State Department last year imposed visa bans on implicated Russian officials.
In response, Moscow compiled a blacklist of U.S. officials it says violated the rights of two Russian citizens, a suspected international arms trafficker and a convicted drug smuggler.
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