WASHINGTON (AP) – A Russian opposition figure is urging U.S. authorities to impose sanctions against a greater number of top Russian government officials in order to defend human rights and democracy in his country.
Speaking at a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Vladimir Kara-Murza, national coordinator at the Open Russia foundation, suggested that more senior officials should be put on the so-called Magnitsky list, a 2012 law named after the late Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky.
Thirty-nine Russian officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses now face travels bans and asset freezes in U.S. jurisdictions as part of that law. Kara-Murza said this list needs to be expanded to include more top officials, as well as government journalists involved in anti-Western and anti-opposition propaganda.
“I really think that the most effective way and frankly the most principled way, the most honorable way to deal with those human rights abusers is to place them on that sanctions list,” Kara-Murza told the hearing. “This is the way it should be done.”
Last year, Kara-Murza, 34, barely survived a mysterious poisoning, which he says was a murder attempt connected with his opposition activity. He now works at Open Russia, which is run by ex-tycoon and former prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who lives in London.