The embodiment of sanctions

On April 4, the US President signed a law passed by Congress that includes additional sanctions against Russians. On April 2, the European Parliament approved a blacklist of 32 Russians involved in the “Sergey Magnitsky case”. It, in particular, included the chairman of the Moscow City Court Olga Yegorova and Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Viktor Grin.
When in 2010 the US Congress raised the issue of sanctions against those involved in the death of Magnitsky, embezzlement of public funds or harboring these crimes, no one believed that these sanctions would ever be adopted. But two years later they became a reality. Despite the fact that the law, signed on April 4 by President Obama, so far does not change anything in the fate of 27 members of the Russian business and political elite who have already been sanctioned by the US President, it significantly expands the ability of the US President and Congress to add new ones to the list. last names: the law refers not only to Russians who were involved in the annexation of Crimea, but also to those who are suspected of large-scale corruption, misuse of public property, and violation of human rights. In addition, if any presidential decree can be repealed by the same presidential decree, in order to repeal the law, you need to pass it through Congress again: and this, given how long and hard it was to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment, is a very difficult task.

The same is true in the Old World: when people in Brussels talked about the "Magnitsky list", skeptics were sure that this was impossible in Europe. And now the European Parliament is already recommending the Council of Europe to adopt an expanded "Magnitsky list", the persons involved in which will be denied entry to the EU, and their holdings in European banks will be frozen. The process has become irreversible.

In general, now, after the Crimea, the reaction of the West will be constantly tightened, but the sanctions associated with the “Magnitsky case” will always remain in a special account, and not only because they were the first. The “Magnitsky case” turned out to be not an ordinary crime of the authorities, but a symbolic case, a crime that reflected all the vile trends of the time: business seizure, budget theft, corruption among the security forces and in the judiciary. And Western sanctions are also a sign of hope for those who have not reconciled themselves to the criminal and imperious arbitrariness, who are fighting and counting on justice outside the boundaries of “basman” justice. This is not punishment or revenge, this is an act of solidarity with those who continue to fight for the truth.