Translated material
Good grandfatherTom
Congressman Lantos vows to repeal Jackson-Vanik Amendment
Against the background of the obvious deterioration of Russian-American relations, there was a politician who decided to reduce the degree of mutual accusations and mistrust. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, 79-year-old Tom Lantos, intends to make every effort to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which is discriminatory for Russia. While on a visit to Moscow, the American Democratic congressman said yesterday that “for his part, he will do absolutely everything in his power to speed up and facilitate this process, thanks to which our two great countries will be able to cooperate in a constructive and harmonious spirit.”Mr. Lantos is convinced that “we need to leave behind the legacy of the Cold War.” “Despite the challenges that we periodically face, I nevertheless expect constructive, increasing and consistently positive cooperation between Russia and the United States,” he said. Tom Lantos has the levers to improve relations between the United States and Russia. In the November congressional elections, he won a landslide victory in a California district (75% of the vote). And overall, the Democrats have done well.
However, relations between Russia and the United States are rapidly deteriorating, and Mr. Lantos' enthusiasm is unlikely to reverse this trend. The congressman’s statements in support of cooperation came against the backdrop of toughening anti-Russian rhetoric by White House representatives. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, for example, yesterday called “extremely unfortunate” the statements of the commander of the Russian Strategic Forces (RVSN), Nikolai Solovtsov, that if elements of the American missile defense system are deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic, the Strategic Missile Forces will target them. Now Moscow is waiting to see what promises and accusations US Presidential Assistant for National Security Stephen Hadley will make public during his working visit. Today he is meeting in the Russian capital with Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov.
Remembering that the Jackson-Vanik Amendment was introduced as a sign of protest against the infringement of the rights of Jews in the USSR, Tom Lantos looked into the Moscow Jewish Community Center. He assessed what he saw with optimism: “I would never have believed that this was possible if I had not seen it with my own eyes. I spent many years fighting for the rights of Soviet Jews. Now I see that your problem has been solved.” But the congressman-patriarch, born in Budapest under the name Tamás Peter Lantos and sitting in the House of Representatives since 1981, is generally considered a “hawk.” He is known for his anti-Russian statements and legislative initiatives such as the demand to exclude Moscow from the G8.
However, Mr. Lantos still takes a tough position in the YUKOS case, considering it political. In May 2005, he personally arrived at a meeting of the Meshchansky Court in Moscow, when the guilty verdict against Mikhail Khodorkovsky was announced there. Tom Lantos said yesterday that Mr Khodorkovsky's release from prison could improve Russia's international image. And who knows whether the congressman's sympathy for YUKOS will interfere with the implementation of his promises to eliminate the notorious Jackson-Vanik amendment.
“Currently, discussions about repealing the Jackson-Vanik Amendment are being conducted not between the United States and Russia, but between the White House administration and the American Congress,” recalled Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy director of the Institute of the United States and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with Vremya Novostey. But even if they fail to reach an agreement again, the fate of the amendment will be decided by Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization. This act, in addition to the removal of existing trade and economic barriers, will automatically mean recognition of the market status of our country’s economy. “In this case, the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which limits economic cooperation between Russia and the United States, will cease to apply de facto,” notes Mr. Kremenyuk.
This will help bring bilateral relations to a qualitatively new level. “One of the main elements of the Jackson-Vanik amendment is the restriction on financing and lending of transactions concluded by American companies with Russian ones. Their volume should not exceed $300 million,” recalled Vremya Novostey’s interlocutor. In addition, the amendment allows the United States to impose inflated duties on goods from Russia.
The Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the US Free Trade Act was passed by Congress in 1974. It linked trade and economic cooperation with the Soviet Union's respect for human rights, primarily the right to emigrate Jews. The amendment prohibited the supply of certain types of American high-tech products and high-tech technologies to the USSR and then to Russia, as well as the provision of US government loans to Moscow. Current US President George W. Bush has repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, called on Congress to repeal the amendment as an anachronism. The pro-presidential Republican majority continued to view Russia as a country that denied Jews the right to leave for Israel. As a result, the White House issued a resolution every year repealing the amendment, but the amendment itself remained in force. The other day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explained the survival of the amendment by the presence of “hidden forces preventing its removal.”
The amendment by Congressmen Henry Jackson and Charles Vanik imposed restrictions on US trade and economic relations with other socialist countries, in particular with China, Vietnam and Albania. After the collapse of the USSR, the amendment extended to the CIS member countries. In 2000, Kyrgyzstan received a pardon for agreeing to join the American project of recreating the “Great Silk Road” - a Euro-Asian transit corridor bypassing Russia and Iran. That same year, congressmen moved Georgia beyond trade restrictions as a reward for carrying out democratic reforms. In 2004, this honor was awarded to Armenia, which the United States tried to tear away from Russia. In 2006, Ukraine got rid of the oppressive amendment - this is how the United States rewarded Kyiv for the “Orange Revolution”.