The State Duma gives a mirror response to the American “Magnitsky Act”

US citizens involved in violating the rights of Russians will not be able to enter the territory of the Russian Federation, they will be prohibited from any transactions with property and investments in Russia, and their assets will be seized. Yesterday, State Duma deputies responded with this bill to the “Magnitsky Act” adopted last week by US congressmen. Among the fellow countrymen whose rights were harmed by the Americans, the Duma members have so far been able to name only businessman Viktor Bout.

The authors of the bill “On measures of influence on persons involved in violating the rights of citizens of the Russian Federation” were State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin and the leaders of four State Duma factions. Such manifestations of solidarity are extremely rare in the deputy corps. Last summer, amendments to the Criminal Code were an act of collective creativity, tightening punishment for insulting the feelings of believers. In the last convocation, short-term political unity was caused by the operation to “force peace” on Georgia during military operations in South Ossetia. The leader of the United Russia Duma, Vladimir Vasiliev, yesterday did not hide his pleasure that the deputies were able to “push aside factional differences and take a united patriotic position as elected representatives of the people, who are obliged to protect the people from injustice.”

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The Duma members expect to protect the people from “persons involved in violating the rights of citizens of the Russian Federation.” Without offering legal characteristics of such “persons,” the authors immediately proceed to list the “measures of influence” on them: “a ban on entry into the territory of the Russian Federation for US citizens,” as well as “the arrest of financial and other assets of US citizens in the territory of the Russian Federation and a ban on any transactions with the property and investments of these citizens."

The arrest and blocking of transactions will affect the assets of only those Americans who are prohibited from entering Russia. US citizens who have committed a crime against a Russian who was abroad will not be able to enter; vested with state powers and contributed to the release from responsibility of those who committed a crime against a Russian; involved in the kidnapping of Russians; handed down unfounded sentences to Russians. And also those who made unfounded decisions regarding Russians that violated their rights and legitimate interests. For these persons there is a “prohibition to dispose” of property on the territory of the Russian Federation. The work of a Russian company will be suspended if its owner is an American who is prohibited from entering Russia. In addition, a US citizen who has lost the right to enter the Russian Federation has his “powers on boards of directors and other management bodies of Russian organizations suspended.” The list of prohibited Americans will be maintained by the Foreign Ministry. “Proposals to change the list” will be able to be submitted by members of the Federation Council, State Duma deputies, the Commissioner for Human Rights, parties, the Public Chamber, and “also government bodies.”

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said that deputies could “adopt a number of decisions that would strengthen the country’s position.” “We send gigantic sums to American banks at two or three percent, but we could think about placing the enormous financial resources of the Russian Federation in other banks,” the communist believes. It is also possible “not to set up a NATO transshipment base on the Volga and help the Americans continue to turn Afghanistan into a drug den.” “I would personally appeal to Cuba with a proposal to restore our base in Lourdes,” summed up the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, supported only the measures that were included in the final text of the draft. But two Right Russia members, Dmitry Gudkov and Ilya Ponomarev, said they would vote against the law. LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky called on his colleagues to explain to citizens the reason for the Magnitsky Act, which, in his opinion, lies in the fact that “America is degrading.” He considers the retaliatory act justified, because “not a single American is in Russian prisons, but Russians are in American prisons.” True, he cited only Viktor Bout, who was convicted in the United States for illegal arms trafficking, as evidence.

I couldn’t name anyone other than Mr. But and lawyer, member of the Public Chamber Anatoly Kucherena, chairman of the board of the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation. Headquartered in New York, the institute addresses human rights violations in the United States. The mission of the institute, according to Mr. Kucherena, is not “to criticize Americans for violating human rights,” but to “jointly study the problems that face the protection of human rights.” But the emergence of the Magnitsky Act, he said, is “an attempt to interfere politics in legal matters.” That is why the Russian side could not help but respond with a “mirror project,” the lawyer believes.

“Both acts—the American and the Russian—are inadequate, and both are political,” says Sergei Karaganov, an expert at the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy. He admits that “the Americans started,” and the retaliatory step is usually a mirror one, as in the case of the mutual expulsion of “spies or so-called spies.” But the Russian side, in his opinion, “could deal with the Magnitsky case more closely than the American side.” In recent years, Russian-American relations have normalized, but if both sides “start not caring who spits next, they may end up with a second edition of the Cold War,” Mr. Karaganov believes.

Victor Khamraev

Like a deputy to a congressman