Financial Times in an article entitled "The Sergei Magnitsky bill" published a material to the bill on the Magnitsky list, which is prepared to be adopted by the US Congress.
"Russia may be an indispensable, if frequently obstructive, international partner. But at home its government sometimes behaves like a criminal enterprise", the newspaper writes, adding that in the case of Sergei Magnitsky Russian authorities have behaved in this way.
The newspaper believes that the US Congress needs to distinguish two things: to scrap the 1974 Jackson-Vanik law and the enactment of the Magnitsky list. It is in the interest of Washington to remove trade barriers with Russia, imposed by the Jackson-Vanik law, adopted in the years of the Soviet Union in response to the appeal of the Soviet authorities to the Jewish "refuseniks" emigrating to "Israel" from 1974, and now the law lost its purpose. Especially as Russia's entry into the WTO it will still have to be canceled.
And do not associate it with Magnitsky list and human rights issues, says newspaper.
The bill, which is based on the Magnitsky list, today refers not only to Russian officials, who, as believed lawyer of Hermitage Capital died in prison, guilty of embezzlement by about 60 officers of $ 230 million from the Russian treasury, but also officials from other countries.
And it deprives the US State Department the ability to maneuver to conduct its diplomacy. It would be wise to adopt the law in such a way without mentioned specific names, and the executive authorities themselves could include into a list of the representatives of foreign governments involved in human rights violations.
Persons included in the list will be denied entry into the United States, and their accounts will be frozen.
American diplomats fear that if in the law will be mentioned specific names, it can cause complications in relations with other countries, particularly Russia and China, whose cooperation in matters such as Syria and Iran, are now critically important for America.
"In the first instance, there is merit in requiring the State Department to publish a list of banned officials. Some crimes are so odious that the culprits should be named and shamed. It also makes sense to freeze their overseas assets. The US cannot stop Russian government employees from torturing a whistleblower. But it can impose consequences.
Nor is there strong reason to believe the Magnitsky bill would alter Russia's behaviour for the worse. Passage of Jackson-Vanik was followed by one of the longest periods of detente in the cold war. Both Russia and China are relatively cold-eyed in determining what is in their national interest. If drafted sensibly, the Magnitsky bill might even be helpful.
The Magnitsky bill could become a useful tool in the US diplomatic arsenal", the newspaper concludes.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
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