Posts Tagged ‘The Hill’
US companies alarmed by Russia sanctions bill
The Hill
American companies are worried that human-rights legislation being linked to a must-pass Russian trade bill could wind up sanctioning them and their business interests.
On Tuesday, the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) and sister group USA Engage publicly came out against the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which will be marked up in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday and is moving in the Senate.
The groups said that, in addition to hurting U.S.-Russian relations, the bill would expose American companies to the risk of having their assets frozen.
The bill was drafted in response to the death, in prison, of Russian whistleblower Magnitsky.
Congressional sponsors want the bill linked with or incorporated into another bill granting Russia permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status, something the United States wants to do by August, when Russia is to join the World Trade Organization. Unless trade relations are normalized by then, U.S. exports to Russia would face higher tariffs than those from other nations.
The sanctions proposal has businesses balancing the possibility of heightened Russian trade barriers against the risk of being ensnared in a new U.S. sanctions regime.
As drafted, the sanctions bill goes beyond punishing the alleged killers of Magnitsky. It would set up a public list of persons responsible for “gross human-rights violations.” Persons, or “entities,” on the list would be denied visas to the United States or have their assets frozen.
The NFTC said the bill “would include subsidiaries of foreign companies incorporated in the United States whose parent’s conduct anywhere in the world would cause them to be sanctioned based on an opaque and unspecified process.”
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House takes lead on Russian human-rights bill
The House Foreign Affairs Committee this week will become the first panel to vote on human-rights legislation that lawmakers of both parties say is a precondition to normalizing trade relations with Russia.
The panel is scheduled to mark up the so-called Magnitsky bill, sponsored by U.S. Congressional Human Rights Commission co-chairman Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), on Thursday. The bill has the support of committee chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and is expected to easily pass the House despite Russian threats of retaliation.
“If this new anti-Russian law is adopted, then of course that demands measures in response,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Yuri Ushakov said last week.
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Dem lawmaker not afraid of Russian threats over human rights legislation
Threats of retaliation won’t deter Congress from moving forward with legislation slapping travel and financial restrictions on Russian officials accused of human rights violations, the bill’s Senate sponsor tells The Hill.
“We’ve heard this before,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said of comments this week by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, who warned of “repercussions” if the legislation becomes law.
“This is an issue that’s important for Russia. Our legislation just tells Russia to do what is right in their own country,” Cardin said. “We’re not asking them to do anything other than adhere to basic international human rights standards.”
Putin spokesman Yuri Ushakov said Russia would “very much like to avoid” the legislation during a press briefing previewing Putin’s meeting with President Obama during the G20 summit in Mexico next month, according to The Washington Post. “But if this new anti-Russian law is adopted, then of course that demands measures in response,” Ushakov said, according to the Post.
A Senate aide dismissed the heightened Russian rhetoric as a sign that the bill — named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who was arrested on fraud charges and died in custody three years ago after accusing tax officials of a $230 million fraud — has a good shot of passing.
“The substance of the threats aren’t really new,” said the aide. “They might be getting louder as the Magnitsky bill gets closer to becoming law, but the threats are all the same. The reality is that coming to the United States is a privilege and if someone has engaged in activities that are against the rule of law and human rights, the United States will take what actions it has available to it even if others choose not to act.”
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Russian envoy: US should stop blaming Moscow for problems
By Jordy Yager – 05/07/12 12:48 PM ET
The U.S. should stop blaming Russia for every problem, that country’s ambassador to the U.S. said Monday.
The United States should stop blaming Russia for every problem, that country’s ambassador to America said Monday.
“To see Russians behind everything that goes wrong in the United States or for the United States, it’s exactly what is wrong with our relations,” Sergey Kislyak said at a roundtable breakfast in Washington hosted by the Institute for Education.
Kislyak’s made the comment after telling an anecdote about a recent trip he took through Nebraska.
During the visit, he said local media asked him if Russia was behind the Colombia prostitution scandal that has shaken the U.S. Secret Service. A radio show host implied, Kislyak said, that Russia had planted the prostitutes to spy on the United States.
Kislyak was quick to acknowledge that Russians are just as guilty of holding suspicions of the United States.
“When it comes to Russia, many Russians believe that the United States is guilty for everything that goes wrong in Russia,” he said. “I would claim that certainly they are in some instances, but not in all. We also contribute.”
He said both sides need to move beyond Cold War attitudes of suspicion and adopt an outlook of inclusion and partnership.
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Senate supporters of Russia rights bill press on despite warning
The Hill
By Erik Wasson – 04/24/12 04:10 PM ET
Senate supporters of a Russia human-rights bill linked to trade said Tuesday that they are pressing forward despite a warning from the Russian ambassador this week that the bill will impair relations.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), would freeze the assets of Russian officials allegedly involved in the suspicious death of Russian whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky in November 2009.
Ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) said that he is fighting to get the bill voted on, and he and Cardin dismissed the comments by Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak that it would cause a “significant” reaction in Moscow and impair relations.
“I accept that he made that assessment, but I would point out that this bill arises in the course of trying to do a number of things that will assist our relations with Russia, whether in trade or diplomacy, and it appears to me that the Magnitsky issue does make a point about our regard for human rights of citizens,” Lugar said.
Cardin said that his bill is meant to benefit the Russian people and said the United States is just reaffirming international norms.
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Russia Ambassador warns Congress over human rights bill
By Erik Wasson – 04/23/12
Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak on Monday warned Congress that there would be “significant reaction” in Moscow if members try to attach a human rights measure to one granting permanent normal trade relations to his country.
Kislyak told reporters that passage of the bill could “impair the ability” of the U.S. and Russia to work together.
Russia wants Congress to grant it permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) and the White House is pushing Congress to do so before Russia joins the World Trade Organization this year.
At this point, Russia will join the WTO regardless of what Congress does and if Congress does not act U.S. exporters to Russia will be hurt. Kislyak made clear Russia will deny new lower tariffs to U.S. companies if Congress does not grant PNTR, as it would be entitled to do under WTO rules.
Some in Congress want to use the occasion to press Russia on human rights and democratization, however.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) have introduced a bill that specifically addresses the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a whistleblower working for a London investment firm who died in suspicious circumstances while imprisoned by Russian authorities in November 2009.
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Senators propose hitting Russian ‘kleptocrats’ with sanctions after lawyer’s death
A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday introduced legislation that would sanction Russian officials involved in the 2009 death of a Russian lawyer who alleged that the government was involved in a tax fraud scheme.
The bill is a reaction to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, whose case has come to be seen as a symbol of corruption in the Russian legal system. Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer hired by an American law firm and who worked for Hermitage Capital.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the lead sponsor of the bill, said Magnitsky “blew the whistle on the largest known tax fraud in Russian history,” and named Russian officials involved in the plan to defraud Russia of about $230 million. Magnitsky was soon arrested, held in detention for almost a year with no trial, and died after suffering from untreated medical complications.
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The World from The Hill: Five key foreign policy issues to watch in the new year
Unresolved issues and new challenges face President Obama on the foreign policy front in 2011, including a new Republican House with lawmakers raring to confront what they see as failing policies.
Republicans can’t do much to change Obama’s direction on foreign policy, but they do hold the purse strings to fund the administration’s operations. Fresh off their midterm rout of Democrats, Republicans have expressed their intentions to use that capability.
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