Canada has adopted its own"Magnitsky Act". The law presumes personal sanctions against officials from Russia as well as Venezuela, Iran, Myanmar, and Vietnam. The Canadian Foreign Ministry said the paper would be a "foreign policy tool," but Moscow had warned on the eve of the voting that Russia would respond tit-for-tat to the toughening of sanctions. Elizaveta Khramtsova has the details.
What took a few months in the US, took 5 years in Canada. But dripping water penetrates the stone, and William Browder, the architect of the Magnitsky Act, found the arguments to convince the Canadian authorities to adopt the scandalous law.
The American financier who had been sentenced in Russia to 9 years in prison for evading taxes and illegally buying up stocks, naturally, didn't act on his own. This footage shows the 2016 press conference on the case of Sergey Magnitsky, Browder standing near Canadian ex-Minister of Justice, Irwin Cotler, who explicitly advocated the adoption of the law.
Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer, who has been conducting the case against Browder for several years, managed to find out exactly when this duo formed.
Natalia Veselnitskaya: "Irwin Cotler has had close links with Browder at least since 2012. Cotler involved the Prime Minister, Trudeau. Moreover, Cotler has confirmed that he demanded Prime Minister Trudeau, when forming a new Canadian government, to adopt by all means this bill, designed by Browder and his team, and advocated in Canada by Cotler".
How did they manage to convince the Canadian authorities to go on a standoff with Russia and, in fact, provoke a tit-for-tat response in the near future? Experts state several reasons.
Alexei Zudin, ISEPR expert: "It might have been a reaction to Washington's informal hints. Or vice versa, they decided to show initiative and please the big brother. But in any case, the first possible reason is the absence of real sovereignty of Canada in foreign politics. But there's a second possible reason. Canada has one of the biggest Ukrainian Diasporas abroad. The calculus can be made to cater to the Ukrainian voters".
The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed regret and already promised to respond, including by expanding the blacklist of Canadian citizens who are banned from entering Russia.
Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson: "In many respects it is simply copied from the odious American Magnitsky Act, and is set to further undermine Russian-Canadian relations, as it is explicitly designed to introduce sanctions against our citizens. As you understand, nothing good will come of this approach. We have emphasized more than once that no anti-Russian actions of Canada will go unanswered. We warn again that if the pressure of sanctions increases on us, we will likewise expand the list of Canadian officials banned from entering Russia".
When approved by the House of Commons, the bill will proceed to the Senate, and then will be signed by the Governor General of Canada to come into force.
Elizaveta Khramtsova, Ruslan Sleptsov, Lyudmila Klyzhenko for Vesti.
