U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Votes Unanimously in Favor of Magnitsky Bill

June 7, 2012

In a his­toric vote today, the U.S. House For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee, chaired by Con­gress­woman Ileana Ros-Lehti­nen, unan­i­mous­ly approved the “Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act” which will impose visa bans and asset freezes on the Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the tor­ture and mur­der of 37-year old, anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky as well as on oth­er gross human rights abus­es in Russia. 

The vote at the Com­mit­tee went for­ward unop­posed in spite of the vig­or­ous oppo­si­tion from the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment, the delay­ing tac­tics from the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion and last-minute lob­by­ing from major US busi­ness­es like Boe­ing, Cater­pil­lar, and PepsiCo.

The ‘Mag­nit­sky Act’ now moves to the floor of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to be vot­ed on at a lat­er date.

Speak­ing about today’s vote, William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment and one of the advo­cates of the effec­tive­ness of the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions, said: 

“Today’s vote in the U.S. will cre­ate a sol­id prece­dent that will be fol­lowed by Europe, Cana­da and oth­er coun­tries con­cerned with the dete­ri­o­ra­tion of human rights in Rus­sia and where par­lia­men­tary ini­tia­tives are under way.” 

Cur­rent­ly, there are 12 nation­al par­lia­ments includ­ing the Unit­ed King­dom, Swe­den, Italy, Cana­da and the Nether­lands, who are con­sid­er­ing Mag­nit­sky sanctions.

Mr Brow­der also said: 

“The leg­is­la­tion will pro­tect the Russ­ian oppo­si­tion because mem­bers of the Russ­ian regime keep their mon­ey in the West. If they start open­ing fire on oppo­si­tion mem­bers, that mon­ey will be frozen”.

“This is the first of many things to cre­ate the endur­ing lega­cy that the life and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky deserves. In the end, when the regime changes in Rus­sia, they will erect mon­u­ments to Sergei for his brav­ery and sac­ri­fice for his country.”

Fol­low­ing today’s vote in the House For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee, the next step in the leg­isla­tive process is for the Mag­nit­sky bill to be vot­ed on by the mem­bers of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, before being vot­ed on by the Sen­ate and final­ly, to be signed into law by the U.S. President.

Link to the U.S. House For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee hear­ing notice about the mark up of H.R. 4405: 

“To impose sanc­tions on per­sons respon­si­ble for the deten­tion, abuse, or death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and for oth­er gross vio­la­tions of human rights in Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion, and for oth­er purposes”.
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearings.asp

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