The US Senate gets serious with Moscow
“Expressions of concern are not a substitute for a real policy ... it’s time for consequences,” announced US Senator Benjamin Cardin as he rose to introduce S.1039, the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011. The bill, currently with sixteen sponsors—eight Democrats, seven Republicans, one Independent—imposes travel and financial sanctions on individuals involved in “gross violations of human rights in the Russian Federation.” The draft law, dedicated to the memory of a Moscow lawyer who, after uncovering a multimillion tax fraud scheme, was arrested, jailed, and tortured to death, goes beyond his own case and, as Mr. Cardin noted in his introduction, “addresses the overall issue of the erosion of the rule of law and human rights in Russia.”
The Senate measure revokes US visa privileges and prohibits financial transactions for Russian officials responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of human rights committed against individuals seeking … to expose illegal activity carried out by officials of the Government of the Russian Federation; or … to obtain, exercise, defend, or promote internationally recognized human rights and freedoms, such as the freedoms of religion, expression, association, and assembly and the rights to a fair trial and democratic elections. (Section 4, Paragraph 2)
Its importance is difficult to overstate. The list of names that fall under this provision would read like a Moscow Who’s Who, from Kremlin deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov, one of the architects of Russia’s modern-day authoritarianism, to Electoral Commission chief Vladimir Churov, who oversaw rigged elections in 2007–08. It would also include those involved in the eight-year persecution of former oil tycoon and opposition sponsor Mikhail Khodorkovsky: the bill explicitly mentions his trial, noting “the lack of credible charges, intimidation of witnesses, violations of due process and procedural norms, falsification or withholding of documents, denial of attorney-client privilege, and illegal detention.”
Apart from ritual cries of “interference” from Duma talking heads Konstantin Kosachev and Leonid Slutsky, Moscow has remained uncharacteristically silent. Even the Foreign Ministry spokesman, usually not one to mince words, could not “be reached for comment.” After years of statements and press releases from Western governments, officials in Moscow are realizing that, this time, they may actually be held to account. Their ability to spend their money and vacations in the West—a cherished privilege—may become conditioned on their respect for at least the most basic rights and freedoms. With Russia’s parliamentary and presidential elections just months away (and the Justice Ministry decision to register—or not—the opposition Popular Freedom Party due within a month), the timing of S.1039 could not be more appropriate. Much will depend on the bill’s progress in the Senate in the coming weeks. The Kremlin is watching closely.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, worldaffairsjournal.org.jpg)
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