Why this is happening?: A woman holds a sign with a picture of Sergei
Magnitsky, at an illegal rally against Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Dec 15.
The sign reads 'Dead in the battle against a system of theft.' After the
U.S. Congress passed the Magnitsky Bill, punishing Russian officials for
the death of Magnitsky, an attorney for a U.S. investment fund who
uncovered mass official corruption, Russia's parliament retaliated with
this bill, which seeks, to punish Americans in part by prohibiting them
from adopting Russian orphans.
Russian Press 'Duped',
Ejected, as Bill Halting U.S. Adoptions Goes Ahead (MoskovskijKomsomolets, Russia)
"Imagine our
surprise when, after waiting another hour-and-a-half in the hallway, the
meeting ... ended! The press had been duped, and the discussion of the children's
issue had been conducted without us. Senators scurried out of the room like cockroaches,
averting their eyes. ... At this newspaper went to print, it wasn't clear
whether the bill, which promises to be one of the most shameful in recent
memory, will be discussed on Wednesday, or whether it will again be hidden from
the press."
It may be about orhphans today, but it all goes back to Sergei Magnitsky: His death in a Russian prison, after implicating top officials in a major tax fraud scheme, is widely regarded as a murder-cover-up in the West, and resulted in the U.S. Magnitsky Bill, which targets Russian officials. Now Moscow has passed its own legislation in retaliation. The trouble is, the Dima
Yakovlev Bill, named after a Russian boy who choked to death after his adoptive U.S. dad forgot him in a car, hurts Russian orphans more than it does Americans.
On Tuesday, the Federation Council [the upper house of
Russia's parliament]approved a bill [the Dima
Yakovlev Bill] that
imposes sanctions on U.S. citizens, and prohibits them from adopting Russian
orphans. On the eve of the vote, the document was under deliberation at the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation. As it did on
Monday, the affair had ended in scandal.
To recall, on Monday, journalists were kicked out of the hall
in which the Federation Committee for Foreign Affairs was discussing the bill. The
MoskovskijKomsomolets' correspondent,
who lingered in the room a few minutes longer and quoted Committee Chairman Senator
Mikhail Merglov criticizing the document, was
threatened with having his upper chamber press accreditation revoked. However, Federation
Council staff promised that later deliberation of the bill would be open to the
press.
The children's question [the issue of whether Americans
would be permitted to adopt Russian orphans] was item number 24 on the agenda.
For an hour-and-a-half, we listened to monotonous and mechanical amendment announcements, but when agenda item number 20 was
reached, we were again asked to leave the room: "This point is about the
procedure for filing criminal cases against senators, about which we are in
disagreement with the Duma [the lower house of parliament]. We believe that the right
to petition and file a case against a senator is within the rights of the
attorney general alone. Right now, the Investigative Committee claims that
right. This question is to be discussed in a closed session."
Imagine our surprise when, after waiting another hour-and-a-half
in the hallway, the meeting ... ended! The press had been duped, and the discussion
of the children's issue had been conducted without us. Senators scurried out of
the room like cockroaches, averting their eyes.
Senator from Nizhnii Novgorod, ValeriiShnyakin, deputy chairmain of the Foreign Affairs Committee, literally had
to be cornered to answer questions. His answers were messy and awkward.
Senator Shnyakin: "According to the statistics of
Americans themselves, over the last 12 years, there were 2.6 million cases of
violence against minors in their country. That is a large figure, which is why we
decided to approve the bill."
MoskovskijKomsomolets: "Why
were the deliberations closed to the press?"
Senator Shnyakin: "There were a lot of differing opinions
and emotions, we didn't want that to spill out. But in the end, the Committee
voted unanimously to approve the bill. Let me repeat the background on this
issue. There is a Mr. Browder,
the owner [CEO] of the fund [Hermitage Capital Management] where Magnitsky was employed.
He [Browder] is an international crook, who transferred $24 billion out of
Russia at a time in which salaries and pensions were not being paid. Do you
know how many orphanages could have been built with such money? And so he
lobbied for that bill [the Magnitsky
Bill]. And if it weren’t for Magnitsky, whom I consider the greatest expert
on tax evasion, this bill would not exist. He [Magnitsky] was made a martyr -
and it is the children who are suffering for it ..."
Posted by Worldmeets.US
[Editor’s Note: Sergei Magnitsky was
jailed in 2008 on charges of tax evasion and fraud, after he implicated senior
Russian officials in a complex scheme to defraud the government, and died
awaiting trial. Magnitsky's colleagues say the charges against him were fabricated
by investigators, whom Magnitsky had accused of being involved in the theft of
$230 million in state funds. The U.S. Congress
responded by passing the Magnitsky Bill, which punishes Russian officials
thought to be responsible for Magnitsky's death, by prohibiting their entrance
into the United States and freezing their U.S. assets. Now, in retaliation,
Russian lawmakers have passed the Dima
Yakovlev Bill, named after a Russian boy who died of heat stroke because his
adoptive American father forgot him in a car. The bill seeks to preventU.S. citizens from adopting Russian orphans,
freezes the assets of Americans with assets in Russia deemed to have
"violated the rights" of Russian citizens, and excludes them from the country].
And suddenly, as if scales were lifted from his eyes, Shnyakin
changed gears: "We need to establish a joint commission with the State Duma [the lower house of Parliament] to monitor implementation
of this law. And the Duma should figure out how to
limit the term of this law. It should not be permanent. If the Americans repeal
their bill, we will repeal ours. Ideally, this would happen in 2013. Putin will
meet with Obama and a dialog has to take place. I would hope this law is
repealed before even entering onto effect."
According to Shnyakin, the law
would allow Americans to adopt our orphans for all of 2013. That is, children
who have already met their future parents will be permitted to leave.
But dour Senator Andrei Klishis
from Krasnoyarsk has a different opinion. "The adoptions will stop
beginning January 1, 2013. That is what the bill says. As far as prior
agreements with the U.S. - let the Foreign Ministry sort them out." He
doesn't believe repeal of the bill is imminent.
At this newspaper went to print, it wasn't clear whether the
bill, which promises to be one of the most shameful in recent memory, will be
discussed on Wednesday at an open plenary session, or whether it will again be hidden
from the press.
