Idel Ural Activist Calls on West to Impose a Magnitsky List of Russians who Persecute Non-Russians

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 6 – Western human rights activists have a long tradition of condemning actions by the Soviet and now Russian authorities directed against individuals or groups. And Western governments have followed with sanctions of various kinds against the officials involved in such persecution.

           

            But nothing similar has been tried with respect to Russian oppression of non-Russian nations within the current borders of the Russian Federation. Now, however, Rafis Kashapov, an émigré leader of the Free Idel Ural Platform, has called for precisely that kind of innovative action by the West (idelreal.org/a/30702552.html).

            The Magnitsky List, it will be recalled, was created by the US Congress in 2012 to hold responsible those Russian officials who were responsible for the death while in a Moscow prison of Sergey Magnitsky, a tax accountant for American businessman Bill Browder. It has since been extended by the United States and copied by other Western countries.

            That act has been effective in calling attention to the crimes of the Russian authorities, and Kashapov argues that such an act imposing sanctions on those who mistreat the indigenous non-Russian peoples of the Russian Federation can play an equally important role for peoples whose plights are often ignored by the West.

            A Magnitsky List “for the indigenous peoples of Russia,” he says, would allow for the seizure of the assets in the West of those engaged in political repressions in Russia.  The small emigrations of these nations lack the resources to achieve that on their own; they need the help of Western governments.

            And today, this is an especially urgent requirement. The Putin regime is restricting the ethnic and linguistic rights of these groups and even is pursuing plans to do away with the non-Russian republics, Kashapov says.  What the various émigré groups must do is come together and press for a Magnitsky List of this kind.

            “In the future with the goal of consolidating all indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation, the government of independent Tatarstan in exile [the self-proclaimed government in exile – see https://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/05/tatar-leaders-in-exile-appeal-to-west.html] plans to convene congresses [of these groups] in England, Germany or Ukraine.”

            “We cooperate with the leaders of social-political organizations of Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Buryatia, Ichkeria, Ingushetia, Komi and Karakalpakistan … We are always glad to extend cooperation in pursuit of our common goals.”

            These goals are based on EU standards regarding democracy, the legal system, the defense of rights and freedoms and social security, Kashapov continues.  And they are completely at odds with Russia who offers its residents material support if they give up their rights and freedoms.

           

            A new Magnitsky List of those who persecute non-Russians can help them resist what Russian officials are doing and thus promote the values of the EU and the West, he concludes.