'Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite told the Munich conference that Ukraine should be supported "with all means necessary to defend, not to attack, to defend its people and its territory." '
-
More Ukraine Crisis Talks Scheduled, February 8, 2015
'..an aggressive Ukrainian reform program..''Europe needs to wake up and recognize that it is under attack from Russia. Assisting Ukraine should also be considered as a defense expenditure by the EU countries. Framed this way, the amounts currently contemplated shrink into insignificance. If the international authorities fail to come up with an impressive assistance program in response to an aggressive Ukrainian reform program, the new Ukraine will probably fail, Europe will be left on its own to defend itself against Russian aggression, and Europe will have abandoned the values and principles on which the European Union was founded. That would be an irreparable loss.
The sanctions on Russia ought to be maintained after they start expiring in April 2015 until President Putin stops destabilizing Ukraine and provides convincing evidence of his willingness to abide by the generally accepted rules of conduc .. it is essential that by April 2015 Ukraine should be engaged in a radical reform program that has a realistic chance of succeeding .. if Europe rose to the challenge and helped Ukraine not only to defend itself but to become a land of promise, Putin could not blame Russia’s troubles on the Western powers. He would be clearly responsible and he would either have to change course or try to stay in power by brutal repression, cowing people into submission. If he fell from power, an economic and political reformer would be likely to succeed him. Either way, Putin’s Russia would cease to be a potent threat to Europe. Which alternative prevails will make all the difference not only to the future of Russia and its relationship with the European Union but also to the future of the European Union itself. By helping Ukraine, Europe may be able to recapture the values and principles on which the European Union was originally founded..'
- George Soros,
A New Policy to Rescue Ukraine, February 5, 2015
'..the Global Magnitsky Act. If passed into law, it will do for the rest of the world what the Magnitsky Act has done for Russia, targeting human rights violators and kleptocrats wherever they may be.''[The Magnitsky Act] was officially introduced on May 19, 2011. When word spread, Russian opposition figures and human rights activists came out of the woodwork to tell members of the House and Senate that banning visas and freezing assets was the Putin regime’s Achilles’ heel. They told their own stories of human rights abuse and asked the senators if it could be expanded to include
all human rights abusers in Russia. After roughly a dozen of these meetings, Cardin and McCain realized that they were onto something much bigger than just one case, and added 65 words to the bill that broadened it to not only sanction the people involved in Sergei’s false arrest, tortute and death, but it would go after all human rights violators in Russia.
..
The Magnitsky law has proven to be a powerful tool. While asset freezes and travel bans against corrupt officials may sound incidental, they have shaken the Putin kleptocracy right down to the core. After Putin’s “re-election” in 2012, he even made defeating Magnitsky sanctions one of his top foreign policy priorities.
With the obvious policy success of Magnitsky sanctions in Russia, Sens. Cardin and McCain, along with Reps. Jim McGovern and Chris Smith, last week introduced a new bill called the Global Magnitsky Act. If passed into law, it will do for the rest of the world what the Magnitsky Act has done for Russia, targeting human rights violators and kleptocrats wherever they may be.
Personally, I can’t think of a more fitting way to honor Sergei’s legacy.' (
3)
- Bill Browder,
How one man convinced Washington to care about human rights in Putin’s Russia, February 5, 2015
Context'..Putin .. increasingly undemocratic president since 2000..'