Federation Council members suggest various options for Russia's reaction to U.S. Magnitsky Act
MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax) - Russian Federation Council members have different views on how Russia should respond to the passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, some of them believing Russia should stay calm and not take any retaliatory steps, while others thinking it should retaliate.
Alexander Torshin, a first deputy chairman of the Federation Council, suggested in an interview with Interfax that Russia should treat the Magnitsky Act "in an American way."
"In an American way means absolutely calmly and with self-respect. Does it really matter what some country adopts in relation to Russia? Well, they adopted this list, good for them. A lot of countries pass various laws in relation to other countries. Now we have to see how this is enforced in practice, and we should give no sign that this bothers us anyhow," Torshin said.
He said this legislation will not affect strategic cooperation between Moscow and Washington.
Valery Shnyakin, a deputy head of the Federation Council international affairs committee, holds the opposite view. "If there were any doubts about the passage of this discriminatory and cynical amendment, now they have all been dispelled, and it is clear that talking about prospects of a reset in this situation would be at least naive," he said.
Russia should take proper measures in response, and it has quite a broad spectrum of diplomatic tools to this end, he said.
Sergei Shatirov, a deputy head of the Federation Council economic and industrial policy committee, described as predictable the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. "It is very important that this has become among the first decisions after President Obama's reelection. After all, he earlier promised to annul this amendment, which is a Cold War rudiment," Shatirov told Interfax.
At the same time, Shatirov sees the fact that the Jackson-Vanik repeal is part of legislation imposing visa sanctions on Russian officials supposedly responsible for human rights abuses as an attempt to put pressure on Russia. "In this situation, it is hard to say that, by passing this legislation, the U.S. displays its care for human rights," he said.