A group of lawmakers in the U.K., U.S. and Canada have launched a coordinated effort to urge the world’s richest countries to adopt sanctions targeting the allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The group is demanding that leaders of all G7 nations adopt legislation similar to the U.S.’s Magnitsky Act, which permits authorities to seize assets — including bank accounts and real estate — and ban the entry of Russians implicated in the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.
The demands are laid out in a series of letters ahead of the G7 meeting in Quebec in June to U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Donald Trump.
The U.K. letter (click to read it on the FN site), signed by 16 members of parliament, states: “The only way to change the behaviour of evil regimes around the world is to create powerful and personal penalties for committing atrocities. Words are cheap, but targeted asset freezes and visa bans are real and compelling consequences, which every dictator hates.”
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The Canadian letter is signed by shadow defence minister James Bezan, who asks that the G7 “set a strong global example and be the first to embrace the targeted Magnitsky sanctions as a policy instrument”. In their letter to President Trump, senators Roger Wicker and Benjamin Cardin call on the U.S. to “encourage all members of the G7 to adopt and harmonise the human rights and anti-corruption sanctions” of the Magnitsky Act.
The move comes as tensions between Russia and the west mount over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K. and against the backdrop of accusations that Russia meddled in the US presidential election in 2016.
Sergei Magnitsky died in prison aged 37 after he had been jailed on tax evasion charges related to a case against Hermitage Capital, a hedge fund run by American investment manager Bill Browder. Magnitsky and Hermitage denied the charges. Browder is an outspoken critic of Russian authorities, who maintains that Magnitsky was imprisoned because he had uncovered widespread corruption among Russian officials.
The U.S. passed the Magnitsky Act in 2012 and expanded it in 2016 to dictators and kleptocrats around the world. Similar legislation has been adopted by several countries including Canada, Latvia and Lithuania. Authorities in the U.K. have some power to seize assets and restrict the travel of people suspected of human rights abuses — Prime Minister Theresa May pledged earlier this month to strengthen those powers.
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On Friday, Browder said the impact of the Magnitsky legislation would be limited until similar measures were enacted more broadly. “It’s clear the Magnitsky Act is getting under Putin’s skin, but it doesn’t work if it is only adopted by some countries and not others,” he said.
The 16 U.K. MPs to co-sign the letter to Johnson include Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Tom Tughendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green Party.
A spokesman for the U.K. foreign office said: “We are committed to promoting and strengthening universal human rights, holding to account states responsible for the worst violations.”
Spokespeople for Trudeau and Trump did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.