Anders Aslund, The Hill: “Time to Address the Hijacking of U.S. Judiciary by Russian Authorities”

A new piece in the U.S. publication The Hill draws attention to the great lengths Russian authorities have gone to in their effort to “hijack the U.S. judiciary for corrupt purposes, expropriation and political repression, which has received little attention.”

Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council specializing on economic policy in Russia, Ukraine and East Europe outlines how “unlawful seizure of private assets and private companies by the Kremlin has been the norm since Vladimir Putin became president in 2000,” and discusses how the Russian regime has consistently used and abused both the domestic and international legal systems to enrich its ruling elites.

Writes Aslund:

“The Sergei Magnitsky case is the best-known example of the Russian state’s co-opting of the courts to support its kleptocracy. A cabal of Russian tax and law enforcement officers conspired to defraud Russian taxpayers of $230 million, the largest tax fraud in Russian history, by targeting Bill Browder’s company, Hermitage Capital.

When Magnitsky, Browder’s tax attorney, discovered the fraud and notified authorities, Hermitage and Magnitsky were charged with their own fraud. Magnitsky was then arrested and died in pre-trial detention at the age of 37.

Since then, Russian authorities have repeatedly called on Interpol to disseminate red notices to harass Browder and other victims. Interpol, which is meant to facilitate cross-border coordination among law enforcement agencies, is susceptible to abuse as it passes on requests and notices from states without much scrutiny.

Russia misuses Interpol’s red notices to gain the support of international law enforcement agencies, including U.S. law enforcement, in pursuing political dissidents and victims of corporate raiding.

Russian legal authorities also abuse the U.S. court system by exploiting U.S. federal discovery laws. Under these laws, a foreign party can use the U.S. federal courts to compel discovery from any person under U.S. jurisdiction.

The Russian authorities used this law repeatedly against Yukos and its affiliates, after confiscating the oil giant from Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other shareholders.”

While the United States is “slowly beginning to fight back against Russian intrusion into [its] courts,” more “needs to be done to keep Russian lawlessness abroad at bay,” says Aslund.

Russia undoubtedly would not be happy if the U.S. stepped up its efforts in this area. But as former German justice minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin rightfully outlined last summer in a piece for Euractiv, the enactment of laws like the Magnitsky act are a “direct consequence of the deterioration of Russian rule of law and [have] been a source of irritation in US-Russian relations. Russia has lobbied for its repeal, but the answer is action, not lobbyists.”

What Ms. Däubler-Gmelin argued last summer is no less true today:

“Enforcement of European Court of Human Rights judgments in cases like Mr. Pichugin’s, and compliance by Russia with its treaty obligations pursuant to the European Convention on Human Rights, would cost Mr. Putin’s government nothing, while meaning everything in terms of freedoms the Russian people, like all people, possess and should enjoy without fear.

At the same time, respect for fundamental rights would send a message that Russia is prepared to take its rightful place among the great nations of the world, cooperating in world affairs on equal footing as the leading nations with respect to human rights and the rule of law.

(…)

Meaningful action in the case of Mr Pichugin, who has already been imprisoned for more than 14 years, would be a first step to Russia’s turning from isolation toward the community of nations. It is the right thing to do, not just for the individuals whose cases would be impacted, but for the world at this critical moment in history.”

For the full text of Mr. Aslund’s piece click here.
To read Ms. Däubler-Gmelin’s piece click here.

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