Magnitsky Act of 2012

John McCain (left) with Ukrainian neo-Nazi leader Oleh Tyahnybok (right) during the Euromaidan coup.[1]

The Magnitsky Act of 2012, commonly referred to as the Russian Sanctions bill was sponsored by Sen. John McCain at the urging of an ex-United States citizen and billionaire who renounced his citizenship to avoid paying U.S. taxes. The bill was authored by Sen. John McCain to sanction Russia and promote Ukraine for Western neo-colonialist interests.

## Contents

* 1 Background
* 2 Bill Browder
* 2.1 Jonathan Winer
* 3 FusionGPS
* 4 Trump-Russia allegations
* 5 Russia-Ukraine war
* 6 See also
* 7 References

## Background[edit]

All Russian ties lay with Hillary Clinton — Uranium One, the Russia Reset and Bill Clinton’s $500,000 Moscow speech. Meanwhile, President Trump promised, and followed through on, a program of national energy self-sufficiency. By 2018 U.S. oil production was booming. This is a direct threat to Russia’s primary source of cash.

The Magnitsky Act denies Visas and freezes the assets of Russians who are involved in human rights abuses. It has proven to be a problem for many Russian oligarchs and officials, including Vladimir Putin. The Russian government would dearly love to see the Magnitsky Act repealed.

As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton opposed passage of the Magnitsky Act—a position coinciding with Bill Clinton being paid $500,000 for a Moscow speech on June 29, 2010. While the Magnitsky bill was being formulated, her State Department was asked by lawmakers to deny visas to the Russian officials who were implicated in the Magnitsky matter. Clinton’s State Department denied the request. The Russian officials who paid for Bill Clinton’s Moscow speech would have been barred from entering the United States if Clinton’s State Department had not denied the request.

Throughout the Trump-Russia scandal the Magnitsky Act was used as a pretext to justify the Obama administration's illegal domestic spying on political opponents.

## Bill Browder[edit]

The law is named for Serge Magnitsky, a lawyer and accountant who was allegedly starved and murdered on the 357th day of a 365-day sentence while in a Russian prison. His employer, Bill Browder, is the grandson of Stalinist operative Earl Browder. Bill Browder renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1998 to avoid paying U.S. taxes and became a UK citizen.

Browder made his billions looting the former Soviet Union.[2] With the collapse of the Soviet command and control economy, bankrupt Soviet government economic enterprises were privatized and sold off, attracting outside foreign investment. At the time of the privatization movement, the only people in Russia with economic resources and foreign contacts were leftwing communist party bosses. Browder, working for Wall Street firms, managed very large investments and originally was a close ally of Vladimir Putin.

Browder invested about $230 million on behalf of Wall Street investors and some of his own money in the supposed new free market of the Russian Federation. By the 2010s, Browder accused the Russians of fraudulent accounting after sustaining big losses. Putin however, claimed Browder owed massive taxes after looting the country.

Browder hired Magnitsky to investigate his losses, but Magnitsky was thrown in prison and accused of being part of Browder's tax avoidance scheme.[3]

Targetted Sanctions, a Moscow art exhibit responds to passage of the Magnitsky Act.

Browder contacted Sens. John McCain and Ben Cardin with a tear-jerker story and a list of powerful Russian oligarchs close to Putin whom Browder accused of stealing his money. When the Crimean annexation occurred, McCain used Browder's list to create a "targeted sanctions" list of specific individuals, oligarchs, and businesses whom Browder accused.

The Magnitsky Act blacklists these Russian individuals and entities from doing business with any American individuals or entities until Browder's money is recovered. Among them is a company called Prevezon, a Manhattan real estate holding company with assets allegedly stolen from Browder.

### Jonathan Winer[edit]

Jonathan Winer was one of the early architects of the Magnitsky Act as he notes in an article from The Daily Beast:

> “When Browder consulted me, he wanted to know what he could do to hold those involved in the case accountable. I suggested creating a new law to impose economic and travel sanctions on human-rights violators involved in grand corruption. Browder decided this could secure a measure of justice for Magnitsky. He initiated a campaign that led to the enactment of the Magnitsky Act. Soon other countries enacted their own Magnitsky Acts, including Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and most recently, the United Kingdom.”

Russian authorities are still pursuing a case against Browder. As Winer notes, the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, allows Russian prosecutors to ask the U.S. Attorney General to arrange for Americans to testify in criminal cases—with one significant exception—as noted by Winer:

> “The attorney general can provide no such assistance in a politically motivated case. I know this because I was among those who helped put it there. Back in 1999, when we were negotiating the agreement with Russia, I was the senior State Department official managing U.S.-Russia law-enforcement relations.”

As Diana Johnstone noted,

> “Winer’s clever treaty is a perfect Catch-22. The treaty doesn’t apply to a case if it is politically motivated, and if it is Russian, it must be politically motivated.”

## FusionGPS[edit]

Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer hired to represent Prevezon in an asset forfeiture settlement; while in the United States settling the case, Veselnitskaya hired FusionGPS to engage in unregisteted lobbying to repeal Russian sanctions (the Magnitsky Act).[4] Veselnitskaya also took part in an entrapment sting targeting Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort conducted by FusionGPS and the FBI, to frame the 2016 Trump campaign as colluding with Russia to violate sanctions. Bill Browder testified July 27, 2017,

> Sen. Graham: “So, I just want to absorb that for a moment. The group that did the dossier on President Trump hired this British spy [ Chris Steele ], wound up getting it to the FBI. You believe they were working for the Russians?”

> Browder: “And in the Spring and Summer of 2016 they were receiving money indirectly from [Katsyv] a senior Russian government official.”[5]

## Trump-Russia allegations[edit]

Main article: Trump-Russia hoax

On March 31, 2017 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley inquired of the Justice Dept. about a complaint filed in July 2016 alleging FusionGPS, authors of the Steele dossier, acting as an unregistered agent of Russia in a lobbying campaign to rewrite and overturn the Magnitsky Act, a law named for a whistleblower who was allegedly murdered while in custody in Russia. The law imputed sanctions against certain Russian officials. Grassley wrote that when FusionGPS reportedly was acting as an unregistered agent of Russian interests, it simultaneously was creating the Steele dossier of unsubstantiated allegations of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians. The Obama Justice Dept. had done nothing since July 2016 to respond to the complaint of FusionGPS' violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

The committee is also seeking to determine the extent to which the FBI relied on the Steele dossier in its investigation. Chairman Grassley has requested documentation from Fusion GPS as to who hired and paid them, when Steele was hired, how the FBI got involved and whether Fusion GPS was aware of the FBI paying Steele.[6][7] Fox News reports both a Senate and House committee are investigating the FBI for leaks and civil rights violations.[8] Adam Housley reports "The person who did the unmasking is "very well known, very high up, very senior, in the intelligence world & is not in the FBI,"[9] and that "unmasking the names and then spreading the names was for political purposes that have nothing to do with national security."[10][11]

## Russia-Ukraine war[edit]

See also: Russia-Ukraine war and Great Reset

In response to Russia's Special Military Operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, corporate globalists began disemboweling themselves. Major oil companies, including Exxon, BP, and Shell, ended joint investment projects with Russian oil companies. Major retailers, including H&M, Nike, Ikea, and TJX, shut down Russian sales and closed stores. Visa, Mastercard, and American Express shut down global services in Russia… Boeing cut off support for Russian airlines and closed its offices in Moscow, while Delta ended its Russian code-sharing arrangement. FedEx and UPS shut services to Russia. Apple, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft all have taken significant action.[12] The Russian population, which is rich in food and energy supplies, likely will not suffer the energy and food shocks the West and the United States cut out for itself with sanctions, although Russians will be deprived of Netflix.

Moonofalabama predicted on day of the special military operation, "The U.S. is pushing its European 'allies' to commit economic suicide by sanctioning everything Russia. The U.S. should be more careful. It is one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil and its aircraft industry depends on titanium from Russia. Russia surely knows who is trying to hurt it the most and it surely knows how, and has the means to, hurt back."[13]

In response to Western sanctions, Russia banned export of fertilizers to countries going along with the U.S. sanctions scheme.

NATO member Turkiye welcomed sanctioned Russian oligarchs to do business in Turkiye.[14]

The United States Treasury seized Russian assets in the United States and refused to allow the Russian government to pay U.S. bond holders of Russian debt with dollars. The United States slapped over 9,600 sanctions against Russian officials, the state, companies, oligarchs and other entities, more restrictions against it than Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela and Myanmar combined. President Putin responded, “The calculation was to quickly undermine the financial and economic situation in our country, to provoke panic in the markets, the collapse of the banking system, and a large-scale shortage of goods in stores...We can say with confidence that this policy against Russia has failed - that the strategy of the economic blitzkrieg has failed...Moreover, the sanctions were not without consequences for the initiators themselves...I am referring to the growth of inflation and unemployment, the deterioration of economic performance in the United States and the countries of Europe, the decline in the standard of living of the Western peoples and the devaluation of their savings”.[15]

On op-ed in The Hill observed:

"In truth, of the world’s 195 countries only 65 have agreed to join the American sanctions regime — meaning that 130 have refused, including China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, most of Asia, Africa and Latin America, countries that together constitute the vast majority of the world’s population. Consider also that the nations the U.S. currently targets with sanctions represent a powerful bloc strongly opposing what they regard as America’s economic bullying. A striking example of the rejection of U.S. assumptions of dominance was a recent meeting of the world’s leading financial nations — the G-20 Summit — when the U.S. delegation walked out on a speech by a Russian delegate and only three of the other 19 delegations followed suit. All of this tells any objective observer that it is not Russia that is the world’s most isolated superpower but perhaps the United States itself.[16]

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev laid out a forecast for the post-Russia sanctions world which was already underway by June 2022:[17]

1- A number of global supply chains will collapse and a major logistical crisis could arise, including the collapse of foreign airlines that will be banned from flying over Russian airspace.

2- The energy crisis will deepen in countries that have imposed sanctions on Russian energy supplies, fossil fuel prices will continue to rise, and the development of the digital economy in the world will slow down.

3- There will be an international food crisis, leading to famine in some countries.

4 – A monetary and financial crisis is possible in some countries or groups of countries, combined with undermining of the stability of some national currencies, runaway inflation and the destruction of the legal system protecting private property.

5 – New regional military conflicts will arise where the situation has not been resolved peacefully for many years or where the important interests of major international players are ignored.

6 – Terrorists, who believe that the Western authorities’ attention is now distracted by the confrontation with Russia, will become more active.

7 – New epidemics will break out, caused by a lack of international cooperation on health and epidemiological issues or caused by the proven use of biological weapons.

8 – International institutions, which have not proved their effectiveness in resolving the situation in Ukraine, such as the Council of Europe, will lose their importance.

9 – New international alliances will be formed, based on Anglo-Saxon criteria that are pragmatic rather than ideological.

10 – As a result, a new security architecture is being created which recognises:

(a) the weakness of Western concepts of international relations such as “rules-based order” and other meaningless Western rubbish;

(b) the collapse of the idea of an America-centric world;

(c) the existence of internationally respected interests of those countries in sharp conflict with the Western world.

## See also[edit]

* Uranium One bribery scandal
* Oleg Deripaska

## References[edit]

1. ↑ https://mronline.org/2022/06/02/mass-shootings-empire-and-racist-copaganda-dog-whistles/
2. ↑ In a review of New York Times reporter Anne Williamson's book, Contagion: The Betrayal of Liberty -- Russia and the United States in the 1990, Paul Likoudis writes: "According to the socialist theoreticians at Harvard, Russia needed to be brought into the New World Order in a hurry; and what better way to do it than [Jeffrey] Sachs' "shock therapy" -- a plan that empowered the degenerate, third-generation descendants of the original Bolsheviks by assigning them the deeds of Russia's mightiest state-owned industries -- including the giant gas, oil, electrical, and telecommunications industries, the world's largest paper, iron, and steel factories, the world's richest gold, silver, diamond, and platinum mines, automobile and airplane factories, etc. -- who, in turn, sold some of their shares of the properties to Westerners for a song, and pocketed the cash, while retaining control of the companies. These third-generation Bolsheviks -- led by former Pravda hack Yegor Gaidar, grandson of a Bolshevik who achieved prominence as the teenage mass murderer of White Army officers, now heads the Moscow-based Institute for Economies in Transition -- became instant millionaires (or billionaires) and left the Russian workers virtual slaves of them and their new foreign investors."
HOW CLINTON AND COMPANY AND THE BANKERS PLUNDERED RUSSIA IN THE '90s, Paul Likoudis, January 2, 2016
3. ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2017/07/10/senate-panel-to-hear-testimony-from-businessman-targeted-by-trump-dossier-firm/
4. ↑ "to remove the name “Magnitsky” from the Global Magnitsky Act, delay the bills passage, and cast doubt on the Justice Dept.’s version of events prior to the passage of the Magnitsky Act. The defrauded complaintant referred to Simpson, who was hired by the Clinton campaign and DNC as "a professional smear campaigner.” “Glenn Simpson knowingly spread false information on behalf of people connected to the Russian government to try to protect Russian torturers and murderers from consequences.” https://dailycaller.com/2017/01/13/exclusive-oppo-researcher-behind-trump-dossier-is-linked-to-pro-kremlin-lobbying-effort/
5. ↑ https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/07-26-17 Browder Testimony.pdf
6. ↑ https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/complaint-firm-behind-dossier-former-russian-intel-officer-joined-lobbying-effort
7. ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2017/03/31/trump-dossier-financier-accused-of-improper-work-for-kremlin/
8. ↑ https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/28/fbi-scrutinized-by-congress-over-probe-into-alleged-russia-trump-link.html
9. ↑ https://mobile.twitter.com/adamhousley/status/847858385798049793?s=09
10. ↑ https://mobile.twitter.com/adamhousley/status/847859134888239105
11. ↑ McCabe, Neil W. (March 31, 2017). Fox News: Senior Obama Intelligence Official Unmasked Trump Associates. Breitbart News. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
12. ↑ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/whitehead-rise-global-fascism-and-end-world-we-know-it
13. ↑ https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/02/disarming-ukraine-day-1.html
14. ↑ https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/russian-oligarchs-can-come-to-turkey-if-legal-minister-says-172518
15. ↑ https://news.yahoo.com/wests-economic-blitzkrieg-unsuccessful-putin-153450454.html
16. ↑ https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3507340-could-russia-win-a-public-relations-war-against-the-west/
17. ↑ https://t.me/no_mainstreamW/3270