Can you believe the hypocrisy?

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US risks wrath of Moscow with threat to officials on 'Magnitsky list'
Washington risks inflaming tensions after releasing the names of 18 Russian officials wanted for alleged human rights abuses

Washington risked further inflaming relations with Moscow on Friday by targeting 18 Russian officials for alleged human rights abuses and threatening them with financial sanctions and visa bans.

The names, released by the Treasury, follow the passage of a controversial bill through Congress requiring the US to take retribution against Russians alleged to have been involved in covering up corruption and organised crime.

Known as the Magnitsky Act, after the Russian lawyer and whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested in 2008 for tax evasion after accusing Russian officials of stealing $230m in tax rebates. In prison, Magnitsky was repeatedly beaten and denied medical treatment. He died in 2009 of untreated pancreatitis.

Russia responded angrily to the act, imposing a ban on US adoptions of Russian children as a tit-for-tat measure that marked a new low in recent relations.

Publication of the names on Friday raised fears in Washington that a new row over Magnitsky could damage relations at a sensitive time.

On Thursday, the administration announced that national security adviser Tom Donilon will travel to Moscow this month to discuss co-operation on issues such as Syria and North Korea.

The State Department stressed that the US government was merely "complying with its legislative requirements" in publishing the names.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/12/us-moscow-sanctions-threat-russians

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@JTT,

What I don't get about the Magnitsky case and the US Congress is, what is it to them? What interest does the US have in these internal Russian matters? I know that relations with Putin--and these mauvers are aimed directly at his regime, if not necessarily at him himself--aren't good, but are they so bad that we're willing to rock the boat, as it were, and escalate tensions thereof as a ploy to weaken his regime?

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'Russia responded angrily to the act, imposing a ban on US adoptions of Russian children as a tit-for-tat measure that marked a new low in recent relations.'
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This is not entirely true. The ban was prompted by a Russian toddler who died in 2008 of heat stroke after neglect from his adoptive American father.

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@InfraBlue,

Quote:

What I don't get about the Magnitsky case and the US Congress is, what is it to them? What interest does the US have in these internal Russian matters?

It's how the US propaganda system works, Infra. It only has to fool its own citizenry and at that, it excels.

Quote:

It’s the quality and not the length of a man’s life that counts. If a man is assassinated while he is fighting to save the soul of a nation, his death contributes more than anything else to its redemption. (Martin Luther King)

I’m not going to look this up, as I understand the sentiment well enough that it stands without citation. Fidel Castro warned Hugo Chavez early in his career to be careful, that the United States would use democracy to bring him down. If you stop reading there, the message will be lost. Castro was not saying that our shadow leadership lurking behind our symbols of democracy actually believes in any of that stuff. Get real. He was saying that Chavez would have to play by the rules, while the US would not. He would have to fight fire with fire, and in so doing would be at a disadvantage. His every move would be publicized while those of the US would be kept secret.

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One side is expected to play by the rules, the other not.

That’s just how it works. There are only a small percentage of Americans vaguely aware of the nature of their own country and the thugs it supports around the world. In our propaganda system, anyone leading a popular movement that opposes US power is demonized, from Mao to Nasser to Castro to Milosevic to Chavez. If you just had a gag reflex at the mention of any of those names, propaganda has achieved its aims. Stop for a second, just a second, to ponder why you know about some leaders, and know to hate them, but not others. One of the most brutal thugs ever to rule in Eastern Europe was Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu. Do you know about him?

Of course not. He was one of ours.

http://pieceofmind.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/hugo-chavez-a-job-well-done-rest-in-peace/

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They [the Russians] are believed to be readying a symmetrical response to the list as well.

I really do not understand why the Russians haven't done this already, really have never done this. You only have to point to the global nature of US terrorist activities being run by, who else, US presidents.

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Can you believe the hypocrisy?

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