Magnitsky Act

A new piece of legislation was passed by Congress recently called the Magnitsky Act that will normalize trade with Russia while condemning human rights violations in the Russian Federation. This act was passed without any problems (a vote of 365 to 43) and signals the US’s continued stance on punishing other countries that partake in human right’s abuse while still moving forward into a new era of trade with Russia. To really understand what this act means though it’s important to understand its predecessor, the Jackson-Vanik Act.

            

The idea behind the Jackson-Vanik Act was essentially the same as the Magnitsky Act, in that it acted as a mechanism to punish countries that violated human rights. Countries, like Russia, that restricted emigration were not given trade benefits with the US. Because of this act Russia began allowing certain levels of emigration so that they could trade with the US. This was seen as a human rights victory and Russia was able to trade with the US. Arguably a win-win situation for everyone involved.

            

Fast forward to the recent introduction into the WTO and we run into a problem with the Jackson-Vanik Act however. It’s against the bylaws of the WTO to have restrictions against fellow WTO members and if the Jackson-Vanik Act was not repelled Russia would be able to deny certain privileges to American firms and the same American companies would be unable to use WTO mechanisms for conflict resolution in Russia. Obviously this was a situation that the US could not allow since we’re all about having the maximum power of trade anywhere in the globe we can manage it. And why shouldn’t we be like that? It’s smart business sense. But anyway…

            

Sergei Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer who reported a $230 million theft from the government by Russian police officers, Russian tax officials and organized criminals. Clearly the man had some balls, because he must have known that he was going to get thrown in jail, which he did, by the police officers he testified against. It was claimed that Magnitsky himself was responsible for the theft, and while he was detained in prison awaiting trail his health began to fail, and it is claimed (though not confirmed) that while he lay in the prison hospital he was handcuffed to his bed, beaten by several guards, and left to die. Of course, he died before every receiving his trial, but with the state of the Russian legal system, it’s unlikely he would have received a trail with an outcome more favorable than what he received anyway.

            

This is the set of circumstances that led to the Magnitsky Act.

            

The US decided to pass this new act, named after Sergei Magnitsky, that would repeal the old Jackson-Vanik Act, normalizing trade between the US and Russia as well as continuing to have some sort of mechanism to punish Russian human rights violations.

            

So what is the Magnitsky Act? Well, it would deny US visas to the men involved in the detainment and death of Sergei Magnitsky, none of whom stood trail after his death, as well as freeze all their assets in the US. Along with this, all future Russian officials who violate human rights would also be denied visas and be unable to have assets in the US. This would continue to encourage Russian officials to take human rights seriously as well as meet WTO regulations for fair trade among members. This seems like a great solution to the problem of the Jackson-Vanik Act, and some European countries are considering enacting similar bills, but the Kremlin is far from pleased about this development.

            

The Kremlin sees it as a direct attack on Russian citizens and has threatened to respond in kind. They have said that they could similar ban certain US citizens from the Russian Federation, as well as freezing assets inside the RF. They also point out that America has far from a spotless record on human rights and they seem to feel that the pot is calling the kettle black.

            

I don’t think that many Americans would be overly upset if Russia enacted similar laws against the US, but it’s an interesting idea. Personally, I think that the Magnitsky Act seems like a good piece of legislation, and that the Kremlin is upset simple because it may actual force them to conduct themselves in a manner more in accordance with the international views on human rights. At the same time, I’m not sure what to think about Russia saying that they will do the same thing to the US. Maybe it’s a good thing to have the international community holding each other responsible in this manner, but I fear that this sort of tit-for-tat reactionism might create gridlock in international cooperation.

            

Regardless, there are some interesting developments going on between Russia and the US and I think this is something worth paying attention to if you have any interest in international relations or human rights.

           

As always, feel free to comment, agree, disagree or whatever else.

Much love, Tyler

Thanksgiving Day Fail

We (the Americans) decided to celebrate Thanksgiving this year in Moscow by inviting over all our friends from Russia and other countries to enjoy some of the foods we were missing the most from back home. Sadly, I was unable to join them for the festivities. Why? Well, let me back up and set the scene for you first…

About two weeks ago I was at the dorm where our Thanksgiving merry making was going to be held with some friends and it was getting close to 11pm, which is when they ask guests to leave. Me, being the kind of guy I am, thought to myself, “forget that, I’m a grown man, I’ll stay as late as please,” and proceeded to do exactly that. The administrator came by twice looking for me and I hid on the porch while Anton explained that he had no idea where I was (thanks for that buddy). By the time 1am rolled around I decided I was ready to leave, and as I opened the door into the hallway I practically stepped on the administrator who had come up to Anton’s room for a third time to ask if he knew where I was.

Needless to say, she was more than a little pissed.

They tossed me out of the dorm, which was cool, I was leaving anyway, and yelled a lot of things at me in Russian that I could only assume were expletives. I got home, went to bed and didn’t think much of it after that.

Fast forward to this Sunday, I had just finished visiting a very cool exhibit on sustainable city development with my friend Sasha that was all in Russian and I actually felt like I understood with his help (his English is about as good as my Russian and we talk almost entirely in Russian, so this still required some work on my part), we went to the dorm, and as I was trying to sign in the guard told me to leave. A little confused I asked why, and he pointed to a piece of paper on the wall, which, if my translation is accurate said, “If you see some American clown with the goofy name ‘Тайлер Джоунс’ be sure to kick his ass to the curb.” That’s how my name translates phonetically, for those of you who were curious to know that information, which I’m sure is all of you.

After trying to explain to him that I just wanted to eat with my friends, and then trying to sneak in, which almost worked, I was forced to wait down in the guard’s office while dinner was being cooked. Anton brought me down a plate of food and some wine to enjoy in front of the guard. I was sure to eat it as loudly as possible and look like it was easily the greatest meal ever crafted on this planet in an attempt to make the guard jealous. I’m sure he probably couldn’t have cared less, but it made me feel better.

Anyway, that’s what Thanksgiving looked like this year: me sitting in a guard office eating turkey and cranberry sauce, drinking wine out of a plastic cup (because I’m a classy gentleman), and trying my hardest to make the guard feel as uncomfortable as possible.

But now for some important business: Things I’m thankful for

My parents who have been nothing but supportive and loving

My friends here and back home who I love dearly

All the teachers I’ve had that have helped me reach my goals

Eddie’s cranberry sauce, because it was like happiness in my mouth

The Elections

I know it's a little late, and you're probably tired about hearing about the elections now that they're over, but I'm going to write about it anyway.

I thought the best part about being abroad during the campaign season would most certainly be not having to see all the adds on TV, and while that was pretty fantastic, I think the perspective I got from being around non-Americans during the election was perhaps more interesting. I'll try and stick to just what I observed from those around me, but I'm going to share some of my own thoughts too. If something I say offends you... well, get over it.

First and foremost, I can tell you that regardless of your feelings about Obama, the rest of the world is really glad he will be back in office for the next four years. All of the foreigners I've met here, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and especially the Russians were all happy to hear that Obama won the race. My French friends thought that Romney seemed extreme, and reactionary, and of course, all the Russians I have met were more than a little put off by his Cold War-era mentality of Russia being the number 1 enemy of America.

I have to agree with them. Regardless of whether or not I like all of his policies, I do think Obama was the better choice between the two. Of course, I didn't care for either candidate, and saying  Obama was better than Romney, for me, is like saying oatmeal is better than grits. They're both essentially the same,  and I'm not particularly fond of either. All of that aside, I do believe that we are living in an every increasingly globalized and connected world, and it is increasingly important that we have a president that sees the necessity of cooperation between nations. Returning to the rhetoric of "Forget the rest of the world, especially those Godless Commies," will not take us anywhere. It's time to wake up, and realize that the rest of the world faces many of the same problems we do, and whether they speak English, German, French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, or whatever else, they are still just people trying to build a better future. Of course, it's more complicated than that, and sometimes groups result to extreme methods like terrorism or economic repression (looking at you, IMF) to achieve these goals, and that's unacceptable, but the principle is still the same. Everyone just wants to be happy.

It's also important to point out that if Romney had won, and we had returned to the "Those pinko Commies are Godless scum," rhetoric I might have a lot of trouble finding work after graduation, and we can't have that, now can we?

One last thing...

I'm getting a little bored about writing entire posts about my week to week activities. Of course, the excursions I go on are interesting, and I'll keep posting about them, but the day to day of my life is pretty regular, and not much fun to write about, so... If there is something in particular you would like to know about let me know through email, facebook, messenger pigeon, whatever, it doesn't matter. Right now I'm thinking about doing a post on food, one about how we get around, and one focused more specifically on the metro here, but if you have some more ideas, let me know, because I'm sure I'll run out of my own quickly.

As always, much love and I miss you all

Happy Halloween from Moscow!

Not much new going on around here this week. As always, just trying to play as hard as I work haha. I wish I could tell you all the details of what I did for Halloween, but I'm really not sure myself what happened this last Friday. My buddy Anton and I went out with a few Russian friends from our faculty and went bar hopping. We met some fun folks from the UK while we were out and enjoyed a few pints with them, went exploring around Moscow and somehow found our way back home. I would like to take a moment to give a huge thank you to Anton for making sure I managed to get home. Who knows where I would be without him.

When I woke up the next day my clothes from the night before were covered in mud, I had hangover that kept me in bed all day, bruises and nice cut on my back from who knows what.

The sure sign of a good time

In other exciting news, I'm starting to get the plans for my Eurotrip during the break between semesters finalized. Right now the list of places I'm visiting includes: Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Germany, Amsterdam, Paris, Piza, Florence, Madrid, and Barcelona. Needless to say, I'm pretty stoked.

School is still going well and I feel like I understand more everyday and I'm starting to be able to have somewhat intelligent conversations with people. Classes are starting to get really interesting and I'm having fun writing on topics like "Freedom of speech in the Russian media and how it shapes political views of the public," and "Problems with legislation on human trafficking in the Russian Federation." If anyone wants to talk to me about these kinds of subjects, feel free to ask. I'm certainly no expert, but it's really interesting stuff and I've been getting some extremely different points of view from the people that live here.

And of course, bonus pictures! These are all from the Museum of Modern History.

1/3 Scale modle of the craft that took Gagarin into space

Book made out of coal that has pages you can actually turn. It was a gift to Stalin, but he never read it because he was afraid it might effect his already failing health negatively.

Big 'ole hammer and sickle. Each one of the ribbions was a country in the USSR

Remember folks, they're are friends!

Eddie SMASH!

Forward, into the future!

Gun cart used during the October Revolution. There's a little mechanism set up inside to imitate the sound of gunfire if the gun malfunctioned so that they could still be used as phycological deterrents.

Cornerstone of the Proletariat

Old school mortor