NCSEJ WEEKLY NEWS BRIEF

Washington, D.C. May 20, 2016

Sharp Drop in Emigration From France and Ukraine to Israel in First Months of 2016

By Judy Maltz

Haaretz, May 16, 2016

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.719930?date=1463754028208

A significant downturn in immigration to Israel was registered in the first four months of the year, according to

Jewish Agency figures obtained by Haaretz.

The drop was most pronounced in Ukraine and France, the two countries that have been the leading suppliers of

immigrants to Israel in recent years. Sources in the Jewish Agency said they had no explanations for the sudden

downturn.

The figures show that in January-April 2016, a total of 7,086 immigrants arrived in the country, down 16 percent

from the same period in the previous year. The number of immigrants from Ukraine (which includes a rather

insignificant number from Molodava as well) reached 1,778 during this period – a drop of one-third compared with

the same period last year. (In April alone, 315 immigrants arrived in Israel from Ukraine, less than half the number

that came in the same month last year.)

In January-April 2016, a total of 1,074 immigrants from France arrived in Israel, down 30 percent from the same

period last year. Still, the Jewish Agency estimates that by the end of 2016, a total of 6,000 French immigrants will

arrive in the country – less than in 2015, but still more than from any other Western country.

According to government officials, who asked not to be quoted, immigration from France had been expected to

taper off after the big boom of recent years. The significant drop in numbers starting this year, they said, does not

indicate a failure on the part of Israel to absorb the newcomers.

Rising anti-Semitism and a depressed economy had been the main factors behind the surge in immigration from

France to Israel in recent years. Many French Jews have also relocated to Britain, Canada and the United States.

Russia has also been a key source of immigration to Israel in recent years. In the first four months of the year, the

number of immigrants arriving from there totaled 2,191 – a slight increase of 3 percent over last year.

A total of 517 immigrants from the U.S. arrived in Israel during January-April 2016 – a slight increase of 2 percent

compared with last year.

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

White House Office of the Press Secretary, May 18, 2016

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/18/president-obama-announces-more-key-

administration-posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals

to key Administration posts:

Ysaÿe M. Barnwell – Member, National Council on the Arts

Daniel Becker – Member, Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute

Rena Bitter – Ambassador to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Department of State

Anne S. Casper – Ambassador to the Republic of Burundi, Department of State

Sung Y. Kim – Ambassador to the Republic of the Philippines, Department of State

Geoffrey R. Pyatt – Ambassador to Greece, Department of State

Douglas Silliman – Ambassador to the Republic of Iraq, Department of State

Marie L. Yovanovitch – Ambassador to Ukraine, Department of State

President Obama said, “I am pleased to announce that these experienced and committed individuals have decided

to serve our country. I look forward to working with them.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

….

Marie L. Yovanovitch, Nominee for Ambassador to Ukraine, Department of State

Marie L. Yovanovitch, a career member of the Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as

Dean of the School of Language Studies at the Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute, a position she has

held since 2014. Ms. Yovanovitch was Deputy Commandant at the Eisenhower School at the National Defense

University from 2013 to 2014. She served in the Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs

as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary from 2012 to 2013 and as Deputy Assistant Secretary from 2011 to 2012.

Prior to that, she served as U.S. Ambassador to Armenia from 2008 to 2011 and as U.S. Ambassador to

Kyrgyzstan from 2005 to 2008. Ms. Yovanovitch was Senior Advisor and Executive Assistant in the Office of the

Under Secretary for Political Affairs from 2004 to 2005 and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv,

Ukraine from 2001 to 2004. Since joining the Foreign Service in 1986, she has also served at posts in Canada,

Russia, Somalia, and the United Kingdom. Ms. Yovanovitch received a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.S.

from the National War College.

Russia proposes to U.S., coalition forces joint strikes in Syria from May 25

Reuters, May 20, 2016

http://news.trust.org/item/20160520124951-hrujh

Russia has proposed to the Unites States and the U.S.-led coalition that they begin on May 25 joint air strikes in

Syria, targeting the Nusra Front and other rebels who are not observing the ceasefire, Russian Defence Minister

Sergei Shoigu said on Friday.

Russia proposes that these strikes should also target convoys with weapons, including those crossing into Syria

from Turkey. He said the proposal had been coordinated with Syria's government and discussed with U.S. military

experts in Amman, Jordan.

Russia reserves the right to hit unilaterally those rebels in Syria who do not observe the ceasefire, state television

showed Shoigu addressing a Defence Ministry meeting.

Azov protesters leave square in front of Ukrainian parliament

Interfax, May 20, 2016

http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/344693.html

Protesters from the Azov civil corpse are leaving the square in front of the Verkhovna Rada, where they voiced their

demands to the authorities not to hold elections in the occupied areas of Donbas.

The rally participants are heading towards the Arsenal metro station and down to the European Square, an Interfax-

Ukraine correspondent reported.

As reported, on Friday a march dubbed "Nation's Demands" organized by the Azov civil corpse ended in a rally

near the parliament, where leader of the movement Andriy Biletsky voiced the protesters' demands. He said that

the principal demand of Azov is not to hold the elections in the areas controlled by militants in Donbas. "Our main

demand is not to hold the elections in Donbas. Because in this case we will lose Crimea completely, and Russia will

disappear from all media as an aggressor country. And the West will have the grounds to lift all the sanctions from

Russia," he said.

The rally took place peacefully, but after a while, protesters started burning flares and smoke grenades. Then, the

situation outside the parliament calmed down and the protesters began to slowly disperse.

According to police, some 2,000 people were participating in the rally. The organizers put the number of participants

at 8,000.

Biletsky also said that the Friday rally was a warning. "We're not going to go into the Verkhovna Rada building right

now, but we will demand our requirements be met... We will not allow holding elections in Donbas," he said.

Russia’s foreign ministry holding consultations with Nuland

TASS, May 18, 2016

http://tass.ru/en/politics/876388

US Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland has arrived in the Russian foreign

ministry and the consultations are underway, a source in the Russian ministry said on Wednesday.

Nuland is expected to meet on Wednesday with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, earlier reports

said.

The US embassy in Moscow said Nuland has already held consultations with Russian presidential aide Vladislav

Surkov.

Nuland is planning to discuss the situation in eastern Ukraine, further steps to implement the Minsk agreements

and support the efforts of the "Normandy four" group and the Trilateral Contact Group at talks with high-ranking

Russian officials, according to the US embassy. A wide range of bilateral and regional issues will also be part of

agenda.

After Russia, Nuland will head for Brussels to join a US delegation led by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Russian Constitutional Court Chief Likens Obama's Rhetoric To Hitler's

RFE/RL, May 20, 2016

http://www.rferl.org/content/article/27746468.html

The head of Russia's Constitutional Court likened U.S. President Barack Obama's public comments about

American "exceptionalism" to Nazi propaganda, taking Russian verbal attacks on Obama and U.S. foreign policy to

a new level.

The comments by Constitutional Court chief Valery Zorkin at a St. Petersburg legal forum come at a time when

tension between Moscow and Washington is at a height unseen since the end of the Cold War.

Zorkin is no stranger to controversial public statements. In 2014, he published a long essay in the government daily

Rossiiskaya Gazeta that defended the institution of serfdom, which Tsar Alexander II abolished in 1861.

In his remarks on May 19, Zorkin said that the concept of American "exceptionalism" has increasingly manifested

itself in U.S. foreign policy in recent years, and called this a worrying trend.

"Any objective, educated person can see in Obama's statements an almost verbatim quoting of the leading

politicians and propagandists of Germany's Third Reich, including Adolf Hitler," Zorkin was quoted by the state-run

RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

"At heart, what Obama is declaring is the same as what the Nazi bigwigs were saying about the exceptionalism of

the Germans and Germany as they unleashed a world war," Zorkin added.

He gave no specific examples of "almost verbatim quoting."

Obama has publicly described the United States as an "exceptional" nation on numerous occasions. His domestic

political opponents have frequently accused him of being insufficiently committed to the concept.

In 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin took to the opinion pages of the The New York Times to argue that

Obama's portrayal of the United States as exceptional is "extremely dangerous."

Russia has long bristled at NATO's eastward expansion and what it considers U.S. attempts to pull former Soviet

bloc nations away from Moscow's influence.

Relations between the two countries have plummeted further since Russia’s military seizure of Ukraine's Crimean

Peninsula in March 2014 and subsequent backing of armed separatists battling Kyiv's forces in the east of the

country.

The Obama administration has sought to isolate Russia in response to Moscow's actions in Ukraine and punished

senior Russian officials, Kremlin insiders, and state-owned companies with sanctions.

Zorkin has been chairman of the Constitutional Court since 2003 and also held the post from 1991-93.

In his 2014 essay, he described serfdom as the "staple" that held Russian society together and that its abolition

exacerbated "social tensions."

New Arrests In Kazakhstan As Planned Protests Near

RFE/RL, May 20, 2016

http://www.rferl.org/content/kazakhstan-new-arrests-protests/27747285.html

Police in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, say numerous items that could be used as weapons or to start fires

have been found in "hideouts" in the city center.

In an official statement on May 20, the Almaty city police department said five people had been detained after police

found "several firearms, ammunition, four grenades, and 5 million tenges ($15,000) in cash" in two apartments.

It added that metals bars, dozens of gas canisters, and materials used to make Molotov cocktails were also found.

The announcement comes amid reports that two more activists were sent to jail for 15 days for "preparations for an

unsanctioned public event."

That brings to at least 26 the number of activists jailed recently for 10 to 15 days on the same charges.

Civil activists and opposition politicians in Kazakhstan are trying to organize mass protests on May 21 across the

country to challenge a law allowing farmland ownership and its lease to foreigners for up to 25 years.

State-controlled media has tried to present the protests as "illegal" and organized by "third forces from abroad."

Thousands Of Azerbaijanis To Be Released In Amnesty

RFE/RL, May 20, 2016

http://www.rferl.org/content/thousands-of-azerbaijanis-released-amnesty/27747281.html

The Azerbaijani parliament has approved a proposal to grant amnesty to thousands of prisoners.

The Act on Amnesty, passed on May 20, is devoted to the Day of the Republic, which is marked in Azerbaijan on

May 28 every year.

The proposal was made by first lady and lawmaker Mehriban Aliyeva.

Some 10,000 convicts will be affected by the amnesty, of which some 3,500 are to be released, lawmakers said.

They added that most people convicted for crimes that do not pose a "major threat" to society, people younger than

18 years, parents of handicapped children, men and women over 60 years of age, as well as war veterans will

either have their prison terms reduced or be released from custody.

It is not clear if the amnesty will affect several people believed to have been jailed on politically motivated charges,

including prominent investigative journalist and RFE/RL contributor Khadija Ismayilova, who is serving a 7 1/2 year

prison term on charges that rights organizations and her supporters say are a result of her work as a journalist.

U.S., Russia Push Armenia, Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh

By Matthew Lee

AP, May 16, 2016

http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2016-05-16/us-russia-push-armenia-azerbaijan-on-

nagorno-karabakh

The United States, Russia and France are pressing the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to begin immediate

negotiations on a settlement to their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh following last month's outbreak of

violence, the worst in 26 years.

Senior U.S. officials say Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French

Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault planned to bring the two presidents together in Vienna on Monday to urge

them to recommit to a 1994 cease-fire, take steps to build confidence and resume stalled peace talks that have

dragged on for two decades without visible result.

Among the measures they will recommend are an increase in monitors along the cease-fire line and the

possible placement of cameras there to observe and document violations, the officials said. They spoke on

condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly preview the Vienna meeting, which is

being convened by the U.S., Russia and France, co-chairs of the so-called "Minsk Group." That group,

operating under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, is seeking to

mediate an end to the conflict.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliev both say they support a negotiated

settlement to the dispute and last met together in December, but hostilities broke out in April. About 75 soldiers

from both sides were killed, along with several civilians, before a Russian-brokered cease-fire stopped the

worst of the fighting.

Yet fears loom of a possible escalation, with Turkey strongly backing Azerbaijan and Russia obliged to protect

Armenia by a mutual security pact. Earlier this month, Armenia's government gave the go-ahead to legislation

that calls for recognizing the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh. The government has blocked earlier similar

proposals from the opposition but this time agreed to send it to parliament in what is seen as a warning to

Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has condemned the initiative, saying it is aimed at scuttling peace talks.

U.S. officials say they are concerned the recent violence may be the result of each side testing the other's

defenses, something made more troubling by the introduction of heavy weapons in recent years. In previous

skirmishes, casualties were mainly caused by sniper fire, but in the past year, both sides have introduced

mortars, rocket launchers and artillery to the region, the officials said.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, May 12,

2016. Erdogan says his country is gearing up to "clear" the Syrian side of its frontier in response to cross-

border fire from the Islamic State group.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region in Azerbaijan with about 150,000 residents in an area of 12,000

square kilometers (4,400 square miles), has been under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces and the

Armenian military since 1994. The conflict is fueled by long-simmering tensions between Christian Armenians

and mostly Muslim Azeris and has been an economic blow to Armenia because Turkey has closed its border

with Armenia, leaving the country with open borders only with Georgia and Iran.

U.S. House Backs Increase In Defense Spending For European Deployments

By Mike Eckel

RFE/RL, May 19, 2016

http://www.rferl.org/content/us-house-back-increase-in-defense-spending-european-

deployments/27745865.html

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a new $602 billion defense policy bill that backs increased

spending for bolstered military deployments in Europe.

The bill, which was approved by a vote of 277-147 on May 18, also highlights persistent concerns about Russian

surveillance flights over the United States.

The House bill still must be reconciled with a Senate version before going to President Barack Obama for his

signature.

Much of the wrangling over the House version of the bill centered on Democratic lawmakers’ efforts to rein in the

war powers that Obama has used to wage battle against militants from the so-called Islamic State, and efforts to

close the U.S. military's detention center at Guantanamo, Cuba.

But the bill also takes aim at Russian actions in Europe, backing a quadrupling in spending requested by the

Defense Department to help calm nervous NATO allies in Eastern Europe.

The bill also reflects nervousness among some policymakers and legislators about surveillance flights that Russia

has requested to make over the United States under a 2002 treaty.

That treaty aims to increase openness and build trust about the military capabilities of both countries.

Both Russia and the United States conduct such flights on a routine basis.

But in February, after Moscow requested permission to conduct another flight over U.S. territory, some officials in

Washington voiced fear that Russian flights would use a high-tech camera with sensors to significantly boost the

Kremlin's surveillance capabilities.

The U.S. State Department has said Russia isn’t fully compliant with the Open Skies Treaty, though top State

Department officials have tried to reassure lawmakers about its usefulness.

The House version of the bill calls for withholding funding from the Defense Department for matters related to the

treaty until defense officials report to Congress that the Russian flights wouldn’t violate the treaty.

It also requires U.S. officials to force Russia to allow U.S. flights over Russian regions such as Kaliningrad, the

Baltic Sea exclave that Moscow has been fortifying with weaponry and more troops in recent months.

EU Ready to Extend Russia Sanctions Over Ukraine Crisis

By Laurence Norman

Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-ready-to-extend-russia-sanctions-over-ukraine-crisis-1463676190

The European Union’s economic sanctions against Russia look set to be extended beyond July because of the

continuing conflict in Ukraine, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said Thursday.

Federica Mogherini’s comments, in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt, come after European and U.S.

diplomats said they were increasingly confident Western economic pressure on Russia over its intervention in

Ukraine would continue.

The EU imposed economic sanctions on Russia in two tranches in the summer of 2014 in response to Moscow’s

annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia has denied

Western charges that it supplied and directed the rebels.

The sanctions, which expire in late July, include restrictions on defense and energy business ties. They also

prevent state-owned banks, energy and defense companies from raising money in European financial markets.

Washington has adopted similar measures.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged the sanctions have hurt the economy, which fell into recession

after oil prices plummeted in 2014.

In an interview published Thursday, Ms. Mogherini was asked if the economic sanctions expiring in July will be

extended.

“I expect so. EU leaders had tied the lifting of sanctions to a complete implementation of the Minsk agreement. That

hasn’t been achieved until now,” she said.

“In the second half of this year, EU governments are expected to undertake a complete political assessment to

determine to what extent the Minsk agreement was implemented and what the path going forward to resolve the

conflict in Ukraine looks like.”

Earlier this year, the EU agreed a set of principles to guide its relations with Russia, including maintaining pressure

on President Vladimir Putin’s government while ensuring dialogue on issues of common interest.

EU officials have worked closely with Russia on issues such as Syria and Iran. European Commission President

Jean-Claude Juncker is planning a trip to the St. Petersburg economic forum next month. That would be the most

senior-level visit to Russia by an EU official since the Ukraine conflict began.

While the sanctions rollover has so far only been discussed by midlevel national officials in Brussels, half a dozen

EU diplomats have said they have seen no major pushback against the extension.

One diplomat said that backing for the renewal of sanctions has strengthened in recent weeks because of a rise in

violence and tensions in eastern Ukraine between government-backed forces and pro-Russian rebels. That has

stalled already slow progress in implementing the February 2015 Minsk cease-fire and peace agreements.

“A rollover would be the scenario I would expect the most,” the diplomat said.

Local elections in the rebel-dominated Donbas region of eastern Ukraine aren't now expected before the end of

summer at the earliest. They are a key step in the Minsk peace process, which is supposed to end with Russia

returning control to Kiev of the Ukrainian side of their common border.

A decision to rollover the economic sanctions will require unanimous support from all 28 member states. Italy,

Greece and Hungary are among the countries that have been most critical of the sanctions decision and Rome last

year delayed an EU move to renew the measures until July 2016, insisting first on a discussion among EU leaders

on Germany’s plans to deepen energy links with Moscow.

People familiar with discussions say Italy hasn't yet taken a clear position on when a decision should be taken and

whether they want the issue aired again among EU leaders at a summit in late June. The agenda for that meeting is

already packed, including key decisions on migration and the possible fallout from the U.K.’s EU referendum on

June 23.

A decision could also come before the summit. Last summer, when the EU was debating whether to extend the

measures, foreign ministers rubber-stamped the decision without discussion days before leaders were due to meet.

As was the case last summer—and again in December—there is discussion on whether an extension should be for

four months or for six. A second diplomat said the most likely outcome is for another six month rollover, which

would avoid leaders having to discuss the issue afresh when they meet in October

U.S. officials have continued to press the EU to maintain the pressure on Russia even while Washington and

Brussels deepen dialogue with Russia on key international challenges like Syria.

Speaking in Hannover, Germany on April 25, U.S. President Barack Obama said “Russian aggression” had

“flagrantly violated” Ukraine’s sovereignty.

“And I want good relations with Russia, and have invested a lot in good relations with Russia. But we need to keep

sanctions on Russia in place until Russia fully implements the Minsk agreements that Chancellor Merkel and

President Hollande and others have worked so hard to maintain, and provide a path for a political resolution of this

issue,” he said.

Ukraine Bailout Set to Be Unlocked in June

By Volodymyr Verbyany and Daryna Krasnolutska

Bloomberg, May 18, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-18/ukrainian-central-banker-sees-green-light-from-imf-at-

end-june

Ukraine’s stalled $17.5 billion bailout will probably be unlocked at the end of next month, though the national

currency is unlikely to benefit as capital controls will also be relaxed, according to the deputy central bank governor

in charge of foreign-exchange policy.

A third $1.7 billion disbursement, held up for eight months because of wrangling over the budget and political

turmoil that ushered in a new prime minister, is possible days after approval from the International Monetary Fund,

Oleg Churiy said in an interview. Ukraine hasn’t discussed combining the third and fourth payments of the rescue

loan, he said.

“If all issues are resolved, the IMF board decision could come in late June,” Churiy said Monday in his office in Kiev.

“The tranche could then arrive within a few days.”

Faced with a fragile economic recovery and anger over the slow pace of reforms, Prime Minister Volodymyr

Hroisman has made resuming cooperation with the Washington-based lender a priority. Parliament is starting this

week to debate 19 laws required by the IMF, including bills on privatization and regulation. Restarting the loan will

help release billions of dollars more in aid from allies such as the U.S. and the European Union.

IMF Mission

An IMF mission that arrived May 10 in Kiev to review the government’s policies before the next tranche can be

disbursed completed its visit Wednesday, the Finance Ministry said.

Having fretted at bailout delays, April’s government revamp renewed optimism among investors that Ukraine can

smooth ties with the IMF. The hryvnia has advanced 1.5 percent against the dollar since Hroisman’s appointment,

while yields on government dollar debt due 2019 have fallen 26 basis points, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The hryvnia probably won’t strengthen as a result of the IMF cash, according to Churiy. Price volatility for

commodities such as steel, one of Ukraine’s biggest exports, as well as the continued, gradual rollback of capital

controls will prevent gains, he said.

“Lifting restrictions will push demand for foreign currency in Ukraine up and supply down,” Churiy said. “That’s why

one can’t say that if everything’s alright with funds from international donors, there’ll be a certain hryvnia-

appreciation trend.”

Rate Cuts

The strictest capital controls were imposed last year at the height of Ukraine’s currency crisis. The next measures to

be rescinded include allowing foreign investors to repatriate dividends, and possibly direct investments, according

to Churiy.

“We’ve already agreed on that with the fund,” he said. “We’ll lift restrictions carefully, taking into account the market

effect of the previous measures.”

Macroeconomic stabilization and fluctuations in the balance of payments will also dictate the pace capital controls

can be unwound, Churiy said. He reiterated central bank plans to continue trimming the benchmark interest rate

from 19 percent as long as inflation eases and this year’s 12 percent target is met. The bank’s monetary-policy

committee decides on rates next week.

“At our meetings with banks, we speak without disguise about cutting the discount rate as inflation slows,” Churiy

said.

Ukraine conflict: more cases of trafficking and torture than previously thought

DW, May 18, 2016

http://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-conflict-more-cases-of-trafficking-and-torture-than-previously-thought/a-

19265157

Human rights groups have received thousands of reports of ill treatment from both the pro-Russian and Ukrainian

sides in the ongoing conflict. Representatives are due to meet in Minsk for the first time in weeks.

Ukraine army prisoners

German broadcaster "Deutschlandfunk" reported on Wednesday that more than 4,000 cases of ill treatment and

trafficking have been documented by human rights organizations during the ongoing Ukrainian conflict. The figure is

likely to be even higher, however, with civilians as well as members of military associations among the victims.

"We can show that 4,000 people have been held hostage last summer," said Oleksandra Matwitschuk of the Centre

for Civil Liberty.

According to the report, the vast majority of disappearances and ill treatment took place at the hands of pro-Russian

separatists. Russian citizens - 58 of whom were identified by name - were also arrested and suffered ill treatment,

the Center said. Enforced disappearances and torture by the Ukrainian side were also reported, although there is

no systematic recording process in place.

Interviews with victims and witnesses, which were recorded by a composite of 17 Ukrainian human rights

organizations, will be forwarded to the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague.

At least 79 torture prisons have been identified by human rights organizations in the so-called people's republics of

Lugansk and Donetsk, with the engineering institute of the University of Lugansk also being converted into an illegal

prison.

Social Democrat (SPD) and Russia representative for the German government, Gernot Erler, responded to the

figures, saying he hoped for a legal line of action.

"Exemption from punishment must be avoided," Erler told "Deutschlandfunk."

Contact Group meets in Minsk

The report on Wednesday came as Minsk prepared to hold another round of meetings on settling the Ukraine crisis.

The Contact Group, which consists of representatives from Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Co-

operation in Europe (OSCE) and the self-proclaimed republics, last met in the Belarusian capital on April 29.

Russia representative for the German government, Gernot Erler

Russia representative for the German government, Gernot Erler

More than a year has passed since Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists from Donetsk and Luhansk agreed to a

settlement in Minsk which contained 13 provisions. The settlement is actually known as Minsk II, because the first

ceasefire lasted only a few months. Although there are currently no large-scale battles being fought, there is also no

total ceasefire.

Two-year conflict

The crisis first erupted following a deadly popular uprising that started in the winter of 2013. The revolt ultimately

ousted former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, sparking a pro-Russian separatist insurgency in eastern

Ukraine. Russia followed up by annexing the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.

Western allies have repeatedly accused Moscow of supporting pro-Russian separatists in the region with troops

and weapons - claims which Russia continues to deny.

According to UN figures, almost one million people have been internally displaced by the conflict and more than

500,000 children directly affected.

Geoffrey R. Pyatt: The whole system in Ukraine 'is in need of root and branch reform'

Kyiv Post, May 17, 2016

http://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/geoffrey-r-pyatt-the-whole-system-in-ukraine-is-in-need-of-

root-and-branch-reform-413876.html

Editor's Note: The following are remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt at the New Ukraine

Investment Conference on May 16 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kyiv.

AMBASSADOR PYATT: Thank you. If I speak from the chair, I think it'll give way to a more conversational

discussion. First of all, let me say thank you very much to Empire Capital for having me here today. It's a special

pleasure for me to be sitting where I am between two hugely talented friends and colleagues. Dmytro Shymkiv has

been one of the greatest champions of reform in the Ukrainian government since President Poroshenko's arrival in

office. And it is the presence, the continued presence and voice, of people like him in circles of decision making

here that make me optimistic about Ukraine's long-term prospects. And then Steve from Citibank has been a pillar

of the American business community, but he has another claim to fame, which I will note this morning in particular,

which is that it's Steve who gave me the opportunity first to meet Jamala. And I know that for, especially, all my

Ukrainian colleagues here today, anything that I say is irrelevant against the background of Jamala's terrific,

inspiring victory in Stockholm on Saturday in the Eurovision competition. So thanks, Steve, for that.

In any case, just to set the tone with a couple of opening remarks, and then I hope we can have a dialogue. I will

say it again: I am feeling more optimistic about Ukraine, about the prospects for Ukrainian reform, than I have felt in

about 12 months right now. I think we are in a very hopeful moment. A lot of the reasons were detailed by Bohdan

in his opening remarks, so I won't repeat them, but the most important single indicator -- the most important single

cause for optimism -- is the clear signal that has come from Prime Minister Groysman, and his new government, of

the commitment to sticking to the path of reform, the commitment to capitalizing on the very tough measures that

Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and his government implemented, in terms of implementation of the IMF package, in

terms of transformation of the energy sector, in terms of revision to things like the government procurement process

and ProZorro, that Bohdan talked about, the cleaning up of the financial sector, which doesn't get enough attention,

the fact that Governor Hontareva and the very professional team at the Central Bank have managed to close more

than a third of Ukrainian banks without the financial system wobbling as a result of that.

So there is cause for great optimism. This should be a very wealthy country. Ukraine has enormous, enormous

untapped potential. It has some of the best agricultural land in the world. It has very strong human capital. It has

strong traditions in areas like metallurgy and avionics. It has an emergent high-tech technology industry which

Dmytro knows well. And critically important, it has both the technical capacity -- the science, engineering,

technology and training base -- but also the democratic culture that allows for the flourishing of a knowledge-based

industry, something Dmytro and I were talking about. I was at my daughter's graduation this weekend and Larry

Ellison was one of the speakers there. And every time you hear people in Silicon Valley talking about how they

came to their success, you realize that Ukraine has all the same ingredients, and it's just a matter of tackling the

issues that Bohdan alluded to, which are the questions of governance.

Number one priority right now, of course, is the implementation of the IMF program. There are important steps that

now need to be approved by the Rada. And I would flag, I think, as the most important single risk factor for Ukraine

over the next couple of weeks, the attitude of the Rada and the ability of the President, Prime Minister, former Prime

Minister Yatsenyuk to continue to maintain discipline inside the Rada, to get the Rada to take the difficult steps that

are part of capitalizing on the progress that has been made over the past 18 months in order to sustain the green

shoots of economic recovery which are already visible in the Ukrainian macro-economy.

Bohdan alluded to the issue of corruption, which is probably the single greatest impediment to unlocking greater

foreign investment in Ukraine, which over the long term is going to be the driver of rapid growth, getting investors

like yourselves to come back into Ukraine.

We are encouraged by the appointment of a new Prosecutor General, and I was very encouraged to hear Bohdan's

positive assessment of Yuriy Lutsenko, which meets my own. Lutsenko is a patriot. He's clearly someone who is

interested in building a European Ukraine. But unfortunately, he inherits an institution which is corrupted from top to

bottom. And this is not just a matter of changing one institution. As I said famously last October in Odesa, it's about

the Office of the Prosecutor General, the whole system, which is in need of root and branch reform, as Ukraine has

accomplished successfully, for instance, with its new Patrol Police, which is an example of how it's possible to

change institutions in this country in a way that generates enormous goodwill among the Ukrainian people, because

Ukrainians want to see these institutions move ahead.

And I think that's one of the other things, for those of you who are operating in a global environment, one of the key

positive factors about Ukraine today is that this is not a country that is suffering from reform fatigue. In fact, when

you look at the public opinion data, what it makes clear is that most Ukrainians want to see reform move faster.

They aren't complaining about the pace of reform; they're complaining that reform hasn't come fast enough. And

that's what's going to continue, I think, to incentivize those like Dymtro and the others, who have dedicated their

professional lives now to building this new country, to continue to move the system forward.

A couple of quick remarks, and then I will hand it over, and look forward to the conversation. Especially for

Ukrainian business, I think it's very important that Ukrainian business continues to maintain an active voice in favor

of reform, making clear (inaudible) what you see as the priorities going forward. I'm absolutely convinced that 2016

is going to be the year which will determine whether or not Ukraine moves successfully on an irreversible path of

becoming part of the European family of nations in the fullest institutional sense. This is the year in which the gains

of the Revolution of Dignity can be locked in and the process of reform can be made irreversible. That clearly is the

goal of Prime Minister Groysman; I know that from my conversations with him. That's the goal of former Prime

Minister Yatsenyuk, who has committed to support. And I think one very positive factor for Ukraine right now is the

fact that former Prime Minister Yatsenyuk has made clear his commitment to supporting Groysman's success. That

will help going forward through what is necessarily going to be a difficult process of reform.

Bohdan mentioned of couple of the other key leading indicators. Privatization is obviously one. Privatization is

important both in order to improve an investment climate, but also to eliminate the use of state assets as sources of

illicit profits for key oligarchic and political groups inside the Ukrainian political system. So how this privatization

process goes forward is a key indicator to watch. We will be particularly focused on the upcoming privatization of

the Odesa Portside Plant, the largest fertilizer plant in Europe, and that will help, I think, set either a positive or a

negative tone for the larger process of privatization that lies ahead.

I'm very encouraged by my conversations last week with the new Minister of Infrastructure. Minister Omelyan is

clearly focused on consolidating the move toward corporate governance in these large state enterprises. There

have been successful new international competitions to attract new bosses for the Ukrainian railways, for the

Ukrainian Post. Not surprisingly, the sectors that have been more resistant to that kind of corporate-based change

are those which are attached to energy, which is the sector which has been the traditional Bermuda Triangle of

corruption in Ukrainian politics. It's been used by Russia to distort politics in this country, it's been used by

oligarchic groups to hold on to their levers of power, and it has been a huge disincentive to the kind of growth that

Ukraine should be able to achieve over the long term. But it's exactly that kind of oligarchic system that I know

Minister Omelyan, Prime Minister Groysman, are committed now to breaking up. So we'll be keeping a close eye

on how that process of corporate reform of state-owned enterprises goes forward.

And then finally, to finish where I began: it's all about the IMF. The United States is committed, and Prime Minister

Groysman and President Poroshenko spoke last week to Vice President Biden, who reaffirmed the United States'

commitment now to move ahead with a third billion-dollar loan guarantee. We hope that the signing of that will

happen relatively soon. In fact, Vice President Biden has invited Prime Minister Groysman to visit Washington next

month in order to carry this process forward. But the key is going to be the completion of negotiations between

Ukraine and the IMF on the disbursement of the next tranche of IMF assistance, and then the Rada's commitment

to continue making the tough votes that are going to be necessary to consolidate success and to lay the foundation

for what should be a long-term growth trajectory in this country.

So let me stop there, and again, I look forward to the conversation.

Russia neuters the media once again

Editorial

Washington Post, May 19, 2016

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/russia-neuters-the-media-once-again/2016/05/18/d372f49a-

1d0c-11e6-9c81-4be1c14fb8c8_story.html

While the space for independent journalism in Russia has narrowed dramatically in recent years, one organization

seemed to buck the trend. It was called RBC and owned by the billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who had

unsuccessfully run against President Vladimir Putin for the presidency in 2012. Mr. Prokhorov fared poorly in

politics, winning only 8 percent of the vote, but RBC began to blossom in the past two years with something almost

unheard of in today's Russia: penetrating investigative reports and an ever-larger audience. On May 13, the hatchet

fell.

Three top editors resigned, including the editor in chief of the media group, Elizaveta Osetinskaya; editor of the

RBC newspaper, Maxim Solyus; and editor of the RBC news agency, Roman Badanin. While the company praised

the departing editors, other news reports said they were essentially forced out because of Kremlin displeasure with

the organization's reports and its growing popularity.

Mr. Putin never entirely extinguished independent reporting in Russia; he marginalized it. He permitted some small

liberal outlets to survive - and almost all the news media engage in preemptive self-censorship - while the Kremlin

dominated television news, the source of information for most people. Whenever an organization or its owner

challenged Mr. Putin, pried into forbidden areas or gained too large a following, the authorities neutered it, often by

removing owners and editors. It happened to the NTV television network at the outset of Mr. Putin's presidency,

again at the Lenta.ru news site in 2014, and now it has happened to RBC.

Among other sensitive topics, RBC published detailed reports about the property holdings of the Russian Orthodox

Church; about the existence of Russian soldiers in Ukraine; about corruption in the Ministry of Culture; and, perhaps

most daringly, about the taboo subject of Mr. Putin's family, including one of his daughters and the business

dealings of her husband. More recently, RBC also covered the Panama Papers and involvement of Mr. Putin's

cronies in transfers of millions of dollars through offshore accounts. This seems to have hit a nerve. Dmitry Kiselyov,

the host of a Sunday night television show, a fierce anti-American commentator and a Putin defender, held up a

copy of RBC's newspaper carrying a story on the Panama Papers leak during a broadcast and attacked RBC's

journalists for being clandestine "assistants" of the United States.

Mr. Putin's goons use violence to suppress opposition voices. In the latest example, a group of pro-Kremlin

Cossacks physically assaulted anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny and his supporters; six were injured, and one

hospitalized. Mr. Putin's style is to target his foes, one at a time. But the tangible impact is fear. As Lev Gudkov of

the Levada Center has put it, Mr. Putin has left the political sphere "sterilized," with nothing that will allow people to

debate social problems publicly.

Mr. Putin has taken the illiberal road to authoritarianism, even though he once pledged to "unconditionally" defend

Russia's nascent democracy. Instead, he constructed a cult of personality. It is a hollow pedestal upon which to

stake the future of Russia.

Vladimir Putin's Dangerous Obsession

Editorial

New York Times, May 19, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/opinion/vladimir-putins-dangerous-obsession.html

The United States and Russia are now proposing to drop food and other emergency aid from the air if President

Bashar al-Assad of Syria does not allow trucks to deliver supplies to his besieged cities. Airdrops are a risky and

desperate move - costly, hard to deliver accurately and, if poorly targeted, a threat to kill or injure the people they

are supposed to help.

On the surface the move seems a humanitarian gesture from two nations that are supposedly partners in ending

Syria's bloody civil war. What it really does is highlight, once again, the duplicity of President Vladimir Putin of

Russia, in Syria and elsewhere. Mr. Assad remains in power largely because of Russian military assistance. It is

hard to believe that Mr. Putin, who fancies himself a man who can get what he wants, could not persuade Mr.

Assad to let aid get through to the cities if he chose to try.

While promising Secretary of State John Kerry that he would work with America to end the war that has reportedly

killed up to 470,000 people, Mr. Putin has been unable or unwilling to stop Mr. Assad from shelling civilians and,

according to reports, is continuing Russian airstrikes as well. A temporary cease-fire that raised hopes for a more

durable peace has now largely collapsed, talks between the Assad government and opposition forces have broken

down and plans to begin a negotiated political transition to a more inclusive government by Aug. 1 seem ever more

remote.

Syria is just one arena where Mr. Putin's obsessive quest to make Russia great again has fueled instability and

reawakened political suspicions and animosities that faded after the fall of the Soviet Union.

A year after invading Ukraine and annexing Crimea in 2014, Russia signed an agreement in Minsk that was

supposed to end the fighting. It is now violating that agreement; violence between Ukrainian and Russian-backed

separatist forces has reached its highest level since a 2015 cease-fire.

Russia is also engaging in aggressive and dangerous behavior in the air and on the high seas. Last week, British

fighter jets intercepted three Russian military transport aircraft approaching the Baltic States. On April 29, a Russian

warplane came within 100 feet of an American fighter jet over the Baltic Sea and did a barrel roll over the jet, which

could have been catastrophic. Two weeks earlier, two Russian warplanes flew 11 simulated attack passes near an

American destroyer in the Baltic.

All this risks direct confrontation with the United States. American military forces have gone out of their way to

exercise restraint, but decisions on whether oncoming planes are a threat are made in an instant, and restraint

cannot be assumed.

Anxieties about Russia among NATO members in Eastern Europe had forced the alliance to make plans to deploy

four combat battalions of roughly 1,000 troops each in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Two battalions will be

American, one German and one British. They aren't enough to repulse a Russian invasion, but NATO hopes they

will deter Moscow from crossing alliance borders. NATO is also proceeding with a European missile defense

system intended to protect against Iranian missiles. Last week, a base in Romania became operational and ground

was broken for a base in Poland. More and bigger military exercises are also on the agenda.

Mr. Putin has long misread NATO, which was significantly demilitarized after the Cold War, as a threat. His more

assertive behavior may produce exactly the reinvigorated alliance he feared, one that is much more serious about

military spending despite problems with economic growth, Syrian refugees and political dysfunction.

NATO's 28 members will meet in Warsaw in July, a good time to reassert resolve. In June, sanctions imposed on

Russia over its invasion of Ukraine will expire, and will need to be renewed, though NATO members would be wise

to keep channels for dialogue with Russia open as well. Mr. Putin would have greatly improved his chances of

regaining the international standing he craves had he diversified his country's economy and worked constructively

with the West.

Russian Lawmakers Back Putin's Move To Create National Guard

RFE/RL, May 19, 2016

http://www.rferl.org/content/article/27744223.html

Russian lawmakers gave tentative approval to forming a National Guard, with some saying the Kremlin needs the

new force as a tool against possible unrest.

Members of the lower house, the State Duma, on May 18 overwhelmingly endorsed the bill in the first of three

required readings, with only the Communist Party speaking out against it.

President Vladimir Putin announced plans to form a Russian National Guard (Rosgard) last month, saying he would

put his former chief bodyguard, Viktor Zolotov, in charge of it.

Putin said the force would focus on the fight against extremism and organized crime, but some observers saw its

creation as a reflection of Kremlin fears of possible antigovernment protests amid an economic downturn.

Communist Vyacheslav Tetekin said during debate on the measure that his party sees a link between the move

and the long-running economic recession.

"The creation of the National Guard is connected to the worsening social and economic situation in the country," he

said.

The Duma voted 345-14 for the bill, with most of the Communist Party faction not voting for the motion. The full

approval of the document is seen as a mere formality in the Kremlin-controlled parliament.

The Russian economy plunged into a deep and prolonged recession last year under the double blow of collapsing

oil prices and Western sanctions against Moscow over its aggressions in Ukraine.

Public support for Putin so far has remained high, but experts say it may shrink as the economic crisis touches

broader segments of the population.

With the economy barely showing signs of recovery, the Kremlin is keen to maintain tight control over the political

scene before the parliamentary elections in September and the next presidential vote in 2018.

"Forming the National Guard is possibly linked to the forthcoming election," Tetekin said.

Reports of ballot fraud in favor of the main Kremlin party during the 2011 parliamentary elections triggered a wave

of mass street protests in Moscow against Putin's rule. After his reelection the following year, Putin responded with

a number of repressive bills stifling the opposition.

The new bill would give the National Guard an arsenal of ways to quell mass disturbances, such as stun grenades

and antiriot vehicles. It specifies that National Guardsmen wouldn't be permitted to use force against pregnant

women and children unless they offer armed resistance, in line with Russian legal norms.

The guard will have the power to detain citizens, check documents, and seal off areas, including for the purpose of

preventing mass riots.

Guardsmen will be able to arrest suspects for no more than three hours, and they will be required to explain to an

arrested individual his or her rights, including the right to a telephone call and to refuse to testify.

The law prohibits the mass media from reporting the locations of National Guard troops and their family members.

In a state of emergency, National Guardsmen will be able to ban vehicle and pedestrian traffic, enter houses, use

citizens' cars to chase criminals, or go to the scene of an emergency, and use force and weapons.

Russian media outlets estimated that the National Guard could include up to 400,000 troops, drawing forces from

both Interior Ministry troops and riot police. Opponents of the bill argued that it would drain the nation's police force

and weaken its ability to combat crime.

Outspoken ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said during the parliamentary debate that forming a National

Guard was essential to tame "any mutineers, revolutionaries, and extremists."

"If [Soviet leader Mikhail] Gorbachev had approved such a bill, there wouldn't have been 1991," he said in a

reference to the Soviet collapse.

Zhirinovsky urged the Kremlin to recruit "young patriots" to the new force and give them generous funds and

"beautiful uniforms," so that "we don't even hear such words as revolution, strife, and revolt."

NATO Chief: 'Broad Agreement' to Seek Meeting With Russia

AP, May 20, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/05/20/world/europe/ap-nato.html

NATO has reached "broad agreement" to seek another meeting with Russia before NATO leaders meet in Warsaw

this July, the alliance's chief said Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman swiftly welcomed the announcement, but said all dialogue must

include respect for Russia's interests.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said alliance foreign ministers agreed at a dinner Thursday on a "dual

track approach" toward Moscow: to keep reinforcing NATO defenses against what they see as a mounting Russian

threat, but also to maintain channels of communication open to the Kremlin.

Stoltenberg said the ministers "all agreed in the current situation that we need a platform (like) the NATO-Russia

Council to pursue transparency, predictability and to work for enhancing mechanisms for risk reduction to avoid

dangerous situations, situations which can spiral out of control."

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond noted NATO this month opened a ballistic missile defense facility in

Romania that the Russians contend could be used against them. He also said member countries are now

discussing whether to deploy between 2,500 and 3,500 alliance troops in the Baltic republics and other front-line

allies that feel especially threatened by Moscow.

"We are doing a few things which are capable of misrepresentation," Hammond told reporters.

He said the council meeting would be NATO's opportunity to " set out to the Russians explicitly what we are doing,

why we are doing it and what we are seeking to achieve," and ensure the Kremlin couldn't claim it hadn't been fully

informed about NATO's actions or the reasons behind them.

The NATO-Russia Council, created in 2002 when relations between the former Cold War foes were much better,

met for the first time in nearly two years last month.

That meeting, however, failed to bridge differences between Russia and the U.S.-led alliance that have led to a

sharp downturn in relations since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

The Crimea takeover led NATO to suspend practical cooperation with Russia, but "we decided to keep channels for

political dialogue open," Stoltenberg said. He said NATO officials will now "start to look into the modalities and

practical arrangements" for reconvening the council.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, welcomed NATO's intentions.

"The Russian side has never avoided dialogue, we always have supported dialogue," he told reporters. "We believe

it's the only way to tackle the problems we face. At the same time, a dialogue must be trusting and constructive and

be based on respect of mutual interests, otherwise it hardly can be productive."

On Thursday, NATO invited the Balkan nation of Montenegro to become its 29th member pending formal

ratification by the U.S. Senate and the parliaments of other alliance members and Montenegro. Peskov, however,

said NATO's growth will only exacerbate the security situation in Europe.

"From our point of view, further expansion of NATO is a negative process," the Russian spokesman said. "This

process doesn't contribute to strengthening European security, just the opposite — it's fraught with heightening

tensions on the continent."

The April 20 NATO-Russian Council meeting was attended by the Russian ambassador to NATO, Alexander

Grushko, and his counterparts from the alliance's member countries.

The Russian Permanent Mission to NATO had no immediate reaction to Friday's developments.

Stoltenberg spoke to reporters before a meeting Friday on how NATO and the European Union can cooperate

more in facing today's security challenges, from a resurgent Russia to Islamic extremism in the Middle East and

North Africa.

Twenty-two NATO nations also belong to the EU. Friday's meeting was also attended by the EU's foreign policy

chief, Federica Mogherini, and the foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden, two neutral EU members that

participate in many NATO operations.

NATO may rely on five battalions to deter Russia, Britain says

By Robin Emmott

Reuters, May 20, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-nato-military-idUSKCN0YB1I0

NATO's build-up in eastern Europe could include up to 3,500 troops, Britain said on Friday, stressing that the

planned deployments would not be aggressive toward Russia.

Russia's seizure of Crimea in 2014 has prompted the Western military alliance to consider deterrent forces in the

Baltics and Poland which British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said would be a "trip wire" to alert NATO of any

potential threat.

NATO defense ministers are expected to decide on the troop levels next month, while making clear no large forces

will be stationed permanently, to avoid provoking the Kremlin.

"It looks like there could be four, maybe five battalions ... the point of these formations is to act as a trip wire,"

Hammond told reporters.

"It isn't intended to be aggressive," he said following a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

Hammond said that could amount to as many as 3,500 troops along NATO's border with Russia, with Britain,

Germany and the United States taking the bulk of command duties.

In total, the deterrent will be made up of small eastern outposts, forces on rotation, regular war games and

warehoused equipment ready for a rapid response force which would include air, maritime and special operations

units.

NATO diplomats say the United States is likely to command two battalions, with Britain and Germany taking

another each. That leaves a fifth NATO nation to come forward to lead the remaining battalion, with Denmark,

Spain, Italy or the Netherlands seen as possible candidates, diplomats say.

The force build-up follows a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama in Estonia in 2014 in which he said NATO

would help ensure the independence of the three Baltic states, which for decades were part of the Soviet Union.

NATO foreign ministers said they had agreed to propose to Moscow another meeting of the NATO-Russia Council,

which met in April for the first time in nearly two years, to set out what the alliance says is a proportionate response

to Russia's annexation of Crimea.

NATO suspended all practical cooperation with Russia in April 2014 in protest over Crimea. NATO said high-level

political contacts with Russia could continue but NATO and Russian ambassadors have met only three times since.

"We are doing things that could be misinterpreted," Hammond said. "We judged that creating an opportunity

through the NATO-Russia Council is the best way of avoiding Russia being able to say: 'we haven't been informed,

we didn't know the details.'"

U.S. Lawmakers Approve Global Magnitsky Act Targeting Rights Abusers

By Carl Schreck

RFE/RL, May 18, 2016

http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-us-magnitsky-global-act-passes-committee/27743557.html

A U.S. congressional committee has approved legislation targeting human rights abusers worldwide with sanctions

modeled after the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law punishing Russians deemed by Washington to be rights violators with

visa bans and asset freezes.

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act at a

May 18 hearing that included fireworks over whether to name the bill after a whistle-blowing accountant who

accused Russian officials of a massive tax fraud before his death in a Moscow jail.

The legislation is named after Sergei Magnitsky, who died in November 2009 while in custody after alleged

beatings, torture, and medical negligence that supporters claim were retribution for implicating tax and law

enforcement officials in a $230 million tax scam.

It echoes the Magnitsky Act, which U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law in 2012 and which has infuriated

Russia. Moscow says the law constitutes interference in its sovereignty and has enacted its own sanctions against

U.S. officials in response.

The Kremlin also responded by banning U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children, a move that rights activists

and Western governments decried as a cruel form of blackmail that punishes orphans and disabled children.

'Gratuitous Slap At Russia'

U.S. lawmaker Dana Rohrabacher (Republican-California) argued that naming the legislation after Magnitsky would

provoke Moscow unnecessarily and that the circumstances surrounding his death remain in dispute.

"By putting Magnitsky in the title, we are taking a gratuitous slap at Russia, and we are confusing people about the

real purpose of this bill," said Rohrabacher, who has advocated for greater U.S. cooperation with Moscow,

particularly on counterterrorism efforts.

"The purpose of this bill is not just to attack Russia. We already have legislation doing that, specifically on

Magnitsky."

Rohrabacher also launched broadsides against William Browder, a U.S.-born British investor who employed

Magnitsky and who led the campaign that resulted in the 2012 law that sanctioned several Russian officials for their

alleged involvement in his death.

Rohrabacher portrayed Browder as a rapacious businessman circulating a potentially false narrative about how and

why Magnitsky died.

"We need to look into this and ask some serious questions before we just accept what is being handed to us," said

Rohrabacher, who added that he supported the bill's goal of sanctioning rights abusers worldwide and only

objected to its title.

This sequence of events surrounding Magnitsky's death has been thoroughly documented by Browder and others --

including, in part, by the Kremlin's own human rights council.

Moscow and like-minded allies have recently made Browder and the Magnitsky legislation the target of an

international lobbying push.

Several committee members voiced sharp disagreement with Rohrabacher’s proposed amendment, calling

Magnitsky a victim of Russian corruption and abuses and defending the inclusion of his name in the legislation as a

way to remind Americans about the Kremlin’s human rights record.

"We must put this name on this bill. We must make it clear to Vladimir Putin and his friends in Russia that there are

international standards we will adhere to and insist they adhere to," Representative Gerry Connolly (Democrat-

Virginia) told the hearing.

Approval of the legislation means it will now be sent to the House of Representatives for a full vote. The U.S.

Senate passed its version of the bill in December.

'No Doubts' In Magnitsky Case

Representative David Cicilline (Democrat-Rhode Island) told the hearing that there "are really no doubts about the

veracity of the case of Sergei Magnitsky."

"The Russian government has had no shame when it comes to the case of Sergei Magnitsky, the details of which

have been pored over, verified by multiple sources, and verified again," Cicilline said. "To allow the Russian

government any modicum of influence over this legislation, including its name, would be shameful."

The United States has publicly sanctioned a total of 39 Russians under the Magnitsky Act, which targets individuals

linked to Magnitsky's death and other alleged rights violations. Most of those either are tied to the tax fraud that

Magnitsky disclosed, or to the prison where he was held.

A Moscow court in 2013 tried Magnitsky posthumously and found him guilty on tax-evasion charges, sparking

outcry from Western governments and rights groups. Browder was convicted in absentia on the same charges a

well.

Senior Russian officials and Kremlin-controlled media in recent months have sought to discredit both Browder and

Magnitsky, portraying them as fraud artists.

This push has coincided with Russian efforts to undermine support for Magnitsky-related sanctions in Brussels and

Washington.

Earlier on May 18, The Daily Beast reported that Rohrabacher last month received a letter from a Russian source

during a visit to Moscow stating that "there is not a jot of truth in Browder's story, but this is the doctrinal essence of

the story known as the 'Magnitsky case' put in as a basis for the U.S. Act."

The report quoted Rohrabacher's spokesman as saying that the letter "came from the Russian government itself,"

though he declined to provide further details about the source.

Rohrabacher "simply wants to give [the letter] careful consideration," The Daily Beast quoted the spokesman, Ken

Grubbs, as saying. "He recognizes that various partisans are impatient for a conclusion, but he wants intellectual

honesty to prevail, which requires some patience."

Russia Is Trying to Wipe Out Crimea’s Tatars

By Christina Paschyn

New York Times, May 19, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/opinion/russia-is-trying-to-wipe-out-crimeas-tatars.html

Russia suffered an unexpected defeat in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday when its singer came in third,

while Ukraine, of all countries, took first place.

To add insult to injury, Ukraine’s contestant, Jamala, is of Crimean Tatar descent. And she didn’t sing just any song,

but a song about her people’s ruthless deportation by Soviet authorities in 1944, when more than 230,000 Crimean

Tatars, an overwhelming majority of the population, were exiled from the Crimean Peninsula. Nearly half died as a

result of this ethnic cleansing.

Russian officials criticized Ukraine’s victory as yet another example of the West’s “propaganda and information war”

against their country. Meanwhile, Europe is no doubt feeling good about itself for delivering a karmic blow to

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whose annexation of Crimea in 2014 and continuing war in Ukraine still sting.

But the Eurovision victory took place in the world of entertainment. In the real world, Russia is escalating its

crackdown on the Crimean Tatars, who now make up 12 percent of Crimea’s population after the Soviet Union

allowed the deportation survivors and their descendants to return in 1989.

On April 26, Russia banned the Crimean Tatars’ legislature, the Mejlis, calling it an extremist organization. On May

12, the authorities arrested several Tatars, including Ilmi Umerov, deputy chairman of the Mejlis. Activists say that

more searches and arrests are likely soon. This would be a particularly tone-deaf move on Russia’s part,

considering that the anniversary of the 1944 deportation is this week.

But if past treatment of the Crimean Tatars is anything to go by, Russia probably isn’t bothered by that.

The Crimean Tatars have always been easy scapegoats for Russia. Joseph Stalin’s justification for deporting them

was that they had sided with Germany in World War II. It’s true that some did, historians say, either because they

were forced to by the invading army or because they believed the Germans would liberate them from the Soviet

Union. But records show that just as many Crimean Tatars, if not more, did not defect during the war. Many fought

valiantly for the Red Army.

Brian Glyn Williams, a historian at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, posits that Stalin’s true motivation

wasn’t revenge but instead plans to launch a war against Turkey to retake land that Russia had lost during World

War I. Stalin wanted to neutralize potential collaborators; the Crimean Tatars, a Muslim Turkic people, were prime

suspects.

Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, The Times editorial board and

contributing writers from around the world.

The Crimean Tatars’ suffering goes as far back as 1783, when Russia first conquered and annexed the peninsula

and began forcing them out. For hundreds of years before Russia took control, the Crimean Tatars had their own

state, the Crimean Khanate.

Crimean Tatars still refuse to submit to Russian occupation. Most opposed the 2014 annexation, and their

leadership continues to demand Crimea’s reunification with Ukraine.

Russia has not taken kindly to this dissent. Russian authorities have shut down Crimean Tatar media. Russian

forces have raided homes and mosques, and harassed and imprisoned Crimean Tatar activists, some of whom

have disappeared or been killed. Russia has tried to block the Crimean Tatars from publicly commemorating the

deportation and has even re-exiled Mustafa Dzhemilev, the Crimean Tatars’ political leader.

According to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, about 20,000 Crimean Tatars have fled the peninsula since the

annexation. This is devastating for a people who spent 45 years banished from their homeland. Many thought they

were done with Russia once and for all when the Soviet Union disintegrated and Crimea belonged to Ukraine. Few

predicted that their nightmare would begin anew in 2014.

If the Crimean Tatars are to survive, Western governments must do more to help.

The first step is to formally recognize the Crimean Tatars as the indigenous people of Crimea. Ukraine finally did so

two years ago, and the European Parliament later followed. Likewise, the 1944 deportation should be recognized

as an act of genocide. Ukraine officially declared it so in 2015 and is now calling on other governments and

organizations, including the United Nations, to do the same.

The State Department has issued the occasional news release denouncing Russia’s treatment of the Tatars, but

this is not enough. After Russia's invasion of Crimea, President Obama signed executive orders outlining the

sanctions the United States would apply and the justifications for them. These should be updated to cite Russia’s

human rights violations against the Tatars. The United States should also push for European Union officials to

renew sanctions against Russia when they expire at the end of July. Not doing so would signal to Mr. Putin that he

can get away with trampling on Ukraine’s sovereignty.

In addition, American elected officials should support the Stand for Ukraine bill, introduced in Congress in April. The

law would affirm the United States’ refusal to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea. More significantly, it would

prevent the president from lifting the sanctions listed in the executive orders until Crimea’s status has been resolved

with Ukraine’s approval.

The Crimean Tatars are doing all they can to resist the destruction of their culture. Last year activists prevented

food and power coming from Ukraine from entering the peninsula. The blockade caused blackouts but

demonstrated how dependent Crimea was on the Ukrainian mainland. Mr. Dzhemilev and other Crimean Tatar

leaders in Ukraine frequently meet with foreign leaders and appear in the news media. Crimean Tatar

representatives are trying to make their case to the United Nations.

Is anyone listening? The world does not have a good track record when it comes to protecting indigenous peoples;

it is often too eager to sacrifice them for political expediency.

There are those who say that Crimea is a lost cause — that Mr. Putin will never allow it to be returned to Ukraine

because Russian ties to the peninsula run too deep. They forget that Crimea belonged to the Crimean Tatars first,

long before the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and Mr. Putin.

The West Shouldn't Fear Russia's 'Hybrid Warfare'

By Leonid Bershidsky

Bloomberg, May 18, 2016

In the two years that have passed since Russia annexed Crimea, the expression "Russian hybrid warfare" has

become a fixture in the Western political, media and academic lexicon. It's a catch-all for Russian hostility -- and a

perfect mirror image of the Kremlin's own paranoia about the West.

The Atlantic Council recently published an article by Ruth Forsyth, a member of the think tank's Transatlantic

Initiative, about Russia's actions to destabilize Germany. It mentioned a suspected Russian cyberattack on the

German Bundestag in 2015, the recently increased visibility of the Russian-speaking community in Germany, and

increased Russian espionage activity.

"Taken together, Russian actions against Germany represent another example of hybrid warfare targeting the

legitimacy of a European government," Forsyth wrote.

This is a typical example of the misuse of the "hybrid warfare" term, which first emerged in 2006 as a description of

Hezbollah tactics against Israel in the Lebanon war to refer to conventional warfare plus the use of terror and

guerrilla action. Its applications to Russia stem from a 2013 speech by General Valery Gerasimov, head of the

Russian General Staff, about the changing nature of wars. According to the general, they are now fought in the

media as well as by economic and diplomatic means.

Gerasimov's concept was hardly ground-breaking: Strategists from Carl von Clausewitz to Mao Zedong have

stressed the usefulness of non-military efforts in conflict. Yet many watchers thought the doctrine fit Russia's

devilishly inventive, multi-channel disruption of Ukraine, and the "hybrid war" meme was born.

Academics have tried to clarify things. In a paper published this year in the journal International Affairs, Dartmouth

College post-doctoral student Alexander Lanoszka defined it as a strategy that "deliberately integrates the use of

various instruments of national power so as to achieve foreign policy objectives in the light of the believed goals and

capabilities of the adversary." The objectives are "to undermine its target's territorial integrity, subvert its internal

political cohesion and disrupt its economy," and the instruments include espionage, propaganda, agitation, the use

of "fifth columns" and criminal elements, and the limited use of conventional military force, often with deniability.

Without substantial military capability that provides an "escalation advantage," though, a hybrid warfare strategy is

not complete: The target must know that retaliation would be difficult.

Some consider that definition so broad as to be useless. "The idea that Russia is conducting 'hybrid warfare'

against the West tells us nothing about Russian goals or intentions," Bettina Renz and Hanna Smith wrote in a

recent paper for the Finnish prime minister's office. "The idea mistakenly implies that Russian foreign policy is

driven by a universal 'grand strategy.' However, Russian goals and intentions, as well as likely approaches, differ on

the global level, within the former Soviet space and with regards to the European Union."

Others have mocked the "hybrid war" concept as "an overcorrection by the West for inadequate attention previously

paid to Russia, resulting in a misguided attempt to group everything Moscow does under one rubric."

I don't think grouping the Kremlin's actions in this way, or even calling them a strategy, is necessarily a mistake.

Putin and his circle of former and current security professionals certainly strategize, and the propaganda,

intelligence, military and paramilitary operations are indeed coordinated by the Kremlin; they are not isolated efforts.

But the use of the term amounts to needless scaremongering in the West and simply mirrors the paranoia that is

often ascribed to Russia.

But there are other reasons why the "Russian hybrid warfare" meme is misguided. For one, the Kremlin views its

own actions as it as defensive. Various Russian officials -- from General Anatoly Sidorov, the commander of the

Western Military District to Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia's counterpart to the Federal Bureau of

Investigations -- have claimed that the West is conducting a "hybrid war" against Russia. In the minds of the Putin

security apparatus, it has been going on since before the breakup of the Soviet Union: economic undermining,

pernicious propaganda, the sponsorship of insurgencies, intensive spying and cyber attacks using the alleged

hidden capabilities of Western computer equipment, gradual military encirclement.

In effect, Putin's people have believed in the "hybrid war" concept longer than the Western analysts who are

debating it now. Since 2012, when Putin's third presidential term began, they have been openly justifying increased

domestic suppression with the need to defend and retaliate.

Labelling any of this "war" is dangerous, as Samuel Charap of the International Institute for Strategic Studies has

noted. It is that thinking that led the Kremlin to conclude that Ukraine's 2013-2014 revolution was an act of Western

wafare against Russia.

Even if Kremlin propagandists believe they are at war when they go out and film a segment about the "raped"

Russian girl in Berlin, it's not really war, though it may provoke some misguided Russian-speaking Berliners to take

to the streets. It's just bad, biased journalism that is best counteracted with truthful reporting, not with any counter-

propaganda effort, as the German press proved in this particular case.

Cyber attacks against government institutions or companies aren't war, either, even when they are government-

sponsored. They don't kill anyone, even though they can create a major nuisance. And they don't require a military

response -- just better security engineering.

Not even spying is war, otherwise revelations that the U.S. once monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel's

mobile phone would have led to the wrong conclusion that the U.S. is at war with Germany.

Strong institutions, a free press, technological expertise and good governance to keep citizens happy are enough to

combat any and all of these elements of so-called "hybrid warfare." Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves once

told me that Russian-speakers in his country can ignore Kremlin propaganda against Estonia because they enjoy

their non-Russian living standards. As numerous analysts have pointed out, Ukraine's case is unique because it

has been such an easy target -- precisely because it lacked institutions, expertise and good governance.

The lack of "hybrid war" paranoia in Germany, which Forsyth criticized in her article, is a sign of health, not

cluelessness. The West does better when it leaves the siege mentality to the Kremlin.