US Names 18 Russians As Human Rights Violators. What Happens Next?
The Obama administration, acting in accordance with a law passed by Congress last year that roiled US-Russia relations, named 18 Russian officials Friday who will face visa bans and a US assets freeze as a result of alleged human rights violations.
US officials said the administration is bracing for blowback from Russia – where irate lawmakers already reacted to the US law by approving a ban on American adoptions of Russian children.
The list was the first to result from passage last fall of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, named for a Russian whistleblower who died in prison in 2009 after publicly reporting massive tax fraud by Russian officials.
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he Magnitsky action announced Friday seemed likely to add fuel to the fire burning through US-Russia relations – even if the initial list was a modest one.
President Putin has cited the Magnitsky Act in railing against what he sees as US meddling in Russian affairs. In December he signed the legislation that would ban adoption of Russian children by US citizens, and has called for Russia to name its own list of American human rights violators.
Some experts in US-Russia relations have played down the impact of the Magnitsky law, noting that it was passed at the same time Congress approved legislation that lifted Cold-War-era restrictions on trade with Russia as part of paving the way to Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization.
But others have cautioned that a US focus on human rights in Russia could dim prospects for advancing other priorities with Russia, such as missile defense and nuclear disarmament.
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http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2013/0412/US-names-18-Russians-as-human-rights-violators.-What-happens-next
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