Magnitsky Bill Moves Forward in the U.S. Congress

June 3, 2012

On Thurs­day, 7 June 2012, the US House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive’s For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee will mark up and vote on the Mag­nit­sky bill (H.R. 4405) that impos­es visa bans and asset freezes on for­eign human rights offend­ers and cor­rupt offi­cials (http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1444). Fol­low­ing that, the Mag­nit­sky bill will move to the full vote in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. This is tak­ing place amid the esca­lat­ing Russ­ian gov­ern­ment rhetoric against the bill and the equal­ly ris­ing call from Russ­ian civ­il soci­ety lead­ers for enact­ing the bill .

“This is a major devel­op­ment as it clears the last major bot­tle­neck to get the Mag­nit­sky bill passed in the House,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.
The House con­sid­er­a­tion of the Mag­nit­sky bill is sig­nif­i­cant for three reasons.

First, the con­sid­er­a­tion in the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee is tak­ing place a week after the Russ­ian Pres­i­den­t’s for­eign pol­i­cy advis­er tried to pres­sure the US over the Mag­nit­sky bill. On 29 May 2012, Yuri Ushakov, for­eign pol­i­cy advis­er to Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin, pub­licly threat­ened counter-mea­sures if the bill gets passed:
“We got used to the Jack­son-Vanik amend­ment, we know well how to man­age it, and it has not par­tic­u­lar­ly both­ered us. But if this new anti-Russ­ian law is adopt­ed, then of course that will require some mea­sures from our side in response” (http://mir24.tv/news/politics/4988469).
The Russ­ian government’s posi­tion on the bill is at odds with Russ­ian pub­lic opin­ion. Accord­ing to a Lev­a­da Cen­ter poll held last August, 60 per­cent of Rus­sians sup­port visa bans and asset freezes by the US and the EU on the Russ­ian offi­cials impli­cat­ed in the Mag­nit­sky case.
Sec­ond, the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives is mov­ing on the Mag­nit­sky bill at a much faster pace than the Sen­ate, who ori­gal­ly led on the bill. In the U.S. Sen­ate, For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee Chair John Ker­ry indi­cat­ed that the bill would be con­sid­ered in April, but in spite of a num­ber of pub­lic promis­es it has not been on the agen­da of the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee lead­ing some com­men­ta­tors to believe that Sen­a­tor Ker­ry is being pres­sured by the US State Depart­ment to block the progress of the bill.
Third, the House may con­sid­er the Mag­nit­sky bill before any con­sid­er­a­tion of repeal­ing the Jack­son-Vanik amend­ment, which many had believed would be linked. The repeal of Jack­son-Vanik amend­ment is con­sid­ered nec­es­sary by the US admin­is­tra­tion for grant­i­ng Rus­sia Per­ma­nent Nor­mal Trade Rela­tions before Rus­sia joins the World Trade Orga­ni­za­tion, which is expect­ed this summer.
The Mag­nit­sky bill is sup­port­ed by Russ­ian oppo­si­tion lead­ers as the sin­gle most effec­tive way to deal with wide­spread Russ­ian cor­rup­tion and rights abuse. A recent­ly released movie, Sergei’s Law, (http://youtu.be/FOaT0dpwmZk) fea­tures four­teen Russ­ian civ­il soci­ety activists urg­ing to enact the Mag­nit­sky bill in the U.S. Con­gress. The video was pro­duced by Col­lege-100, a net­work of U.S. stu­dent body pres­i­dents rep­re­sent­ing over 3 mil­lion young people.

“The Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act of 2012” was intro­duced by U.S. House Rep­re­sen­ta­tive James McGov­ern in April 2012. The bill has gained 25 co-spon­sors in one month, includ­ing Ileana Ros-Lehti­nen, chair of the U.S. House For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee, where the bill will be up for mark up this week.

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