Sanctions against foreign offials in Russia

[DV RULES]

MOSCOW, June 29 (Itar-Tass) — A bill on measures to influence those involved in violation of rights of Russia’s citizens abroad was presented to the State Duma. The law will be effective for foreign officials. They may be not allowed to come into Russia and sanctions may be applied to them. The State Duma does not conceal that the bill is an answer to the Cardin List, which was initiated by Senator Benjamin Cardin. The senator suggests various punishments for Russia’s officials involved in the Magnitsky case.

The bill was initiated by all four factions of the State Duma, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports. According to it, Russia’s authorities will be able to use various sanctions against foreign officials. Or, as the authors say more diplomatically in the explanatory note, the objective of the law is to support Russia’s citizens “who face, while abroad, a complicated situation, caused by actions (lack of actions) of citizens of hosting country, who have state authority, by means of influencing those foreign citizens.”

The bill will be an adequate response to American and European black lists, the Vedomosti writes, quoting an author of the bill, leader of the LDPR faction at the State Duma Igor Lebedev. Sanctions against Russia’s officials and law enforcers, involved in death of Sergei Magnitsky, were discussed in the USA’s Department of State and the Senate; and the European Parliament had its own discussion, too, the newspaper writes. The main demand is banning visas. Final decisions have not been taken yet, but they are probable. If Russia’s law is adopted, foreign officials, responsible for material or moral damage to a Russian citizen abroad may be not allowed to enter Russia, the official’s accounts in Russian banks will be arrested, any deals with Russian assets will be stopped, and so on.

No doubt, that civil rights should be protected, and those rights are being violated not by Russian officials only; things happen, the Vedomosti writes. And still, violation of Russian citizens’ rights in Russia and lack of state officials’ responsibility for it is a more important problem from the statistical point of view. Russian and Western initiatives differ significantly. Western lists contain specific names connected with suspicions of violating laws and which are not being investigated properly in Russia. Russia’s bill is more general, the necessary names may be included later on.

The Kommersant quotes Director of the Moscow Carnegie Centre Dmitry Trenin as saying that the bill is an asymmetric response to the USA. “I believe this initiative is not worth it, deputies have demonstrated their patriotism, but it looks cheap and weak.”

Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs magazine and political scientist Fedor Lukyanov comments on the State Duma’s activities by calling them a political gesture. “I can barely imagine how it will be used practically, like the USA’a sanctions referring to the Magnitsky case.”

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c142/175609.html

It could be appropriate answer to EU & USA where there are many cases when Russian citizen rights are violated by foreign officials abroad.