With much fanfare, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab went before the House of Commons yesterday to announce the adoption of a “Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime,” naming a total of 49 people (Russians, Saudis, North Koreans, and two generals from Myanmar) who will be sanctioned under the new system, allegedly for committing “some of the worst human rights abuses in recent memory.” In announcing the new regime, which is an adjunct to the 2018 Magnitsky Amendment to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering legislation, Raab insisted that it shows that “Global Britain” is committed to “acting as a force for good in the world,” and is taking the moral high ground in targeting “thugs of despots and henchmen of dictators.”
Not exactly. In the name of defending human rights and combatting illicit financial activity, the U.K.’s new regime is intended to serve as a political weapon wielded against Russia, China and other “enemies,” as the Magnitsky Act does in the U.S. The authors of that legislative obscenity named it for Sergei Magnitsky, whom they claim was killed in prison by the Russian government in 2009 after he allegedly unearthed major government tax and financial fraud. Since its 2012 passage, it has been used for purely geopolitical purposes largely against Russia. It’s instructive that Magnitsky’s partner, longtime British agent Bill Browder, was present when Raab spoke and gushed that the new regime represented “a huge milestone in our ten-year campaign for justice.” The British claim that the 25 Russians sanctioned under the new regime were involved in Magnitsky’s death.
