Kasparov and Nemtsov: The Right Way to Sanction Russia
Leading Russia opposition figures Garry Kasparov and Boris Nemtsov have called on the US Senate to replace the Jackson-Vanik amendment with the Magnitsky Bill to keep pressure on Russia on human rights issues. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, the two note that “Jackson-Vanik is a relic and its time has passed. But allowing it to disappear with nothing in its place, and right on the heels of the fantastically corrupt “election” of March 4, turns it into little more than a gift to Mr. Putin.”
They note that fellow opposition leader Alexey Navalny believes the Magnitsky bill “is not anti-Russian. In fact I believe it is pro-Russian. It helps defend us from the criminals who kill our citizens, steal our money, and hide it abroad.”
The two conclude that “replacing Jackson-Vanik with it would promote better relations between the people of the U.S. and Russia while refusing to provide aid and comfort to a tyrant and his regime at this critical moment in history. This, too, would be a policy of principle.”
