A Hint of Cold War between Moscow and Washington

The blacklisting of 18 Russian civil servants by the United States on the Magnitsky list causes fear of retaliation.

The United States and Russia are once again caught up in a cycle of retaliation that has a hint of cold war about it. Friday night, the U.S. Department of State released a list of 18 Russian civil servants suspected by Washington of having violated human rights. The aforementioned are not allowed on U.S. soil, and their financial assets will be frozen. This is a crucial step in the guerrilla diplomacy between these two countries since the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Russian prison in 2009. Charged with tax fraud, this associate of the Hermitage Capital advisory firm was a victim of mistreatment that would prove fatal after he uncovered a large corruption scheme involving $230 million and implicating Russian tax authorities and members of the internal security services. All those implicated have been cleared by the Russian courts.

It’s this judicial “fault” that the American government, under pressure from Congress, intends to correct. Originally, the legislature had proposed a list of 280 names to the administration, including high-ranking Russian officials. However, anxious not to exacerbate relations with the Kremlin, the Department of State finally gave a limited register. Included on this list are two chief investigators of the Ministry of the Interior, Artem Kuznetsov and Pavel Karpov. They are accused of having fabricated a false case against Sergei Magnitsky in order to better hide the corruption of their colleagues who, for their part, were responsible for embezzling the incriminating funds. Also currently sanctioned is Olga Stepanova, an official of the tax administration accused of being the center of the embezzlement organization. On the other hand, Alexander Bastrikin, the head of the Russian Investigation Committee, the legal system and the police directly bound to the Kremlin, was removed from the list. He is an old classmate of Vladimir Putin. In addition, Washington has sanctioned the presumed killer of a militant who was hostile to the leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. According to The New York Times, Kadyrov, who is suspected of having authorized killings, would be equally considered a persona non grata by the American authorities. However, just like other high-ranking Russian officials, he was placed on a strictly confidential list so as not to offend Moscow. In the future, the list could be bolstered by new names, said a diplomatic source in Washington.

A “Counter List” of American Citizens

Instantly known as “the 18,” Moscow has announced that they no longer occupy the positions for which they were prosecuted — an indirect means of recognizing their guilt. While noting Obama’s desire to not “aggravate a political crisis with Moscow,” the president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Duma, Alexei Pushkov, announced the forthcoming publication of a retaliatory “Counter List” of U.S. citizens who are also suspected of violations of human rights and potentially unwelcome on Russian soil. This list will be “proportionate” to the U.S. offensive, said the Duma, which intends to be at the forefront of the battle. American judges and officials linked to the management of the controversial Guantanamo prison or the incarceration of the former Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout could be sanctioned.

“The appearance of any lists will doubtless have a very negative effect on bilateral Russian-U.S. relations,” warned Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, while stressing that these relations have important “developmental potential.” A timely irony: National security adviser Tom Donilon will visit Moscow on April 14 and 15 with a letter from Barack Obama inviting Moscow to pursue the “reset” policy of the dialogue already initiated by the head of the White House in 2009. Donilon must meet in particular the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev. “The timing was poorly chosen,” lamented the minister of foreign affairs, Sergei Lavrov.