The US Senate on Thursday passed a bill allowing the administration to enforce the Magnitsky Act against any country’s official responsible corruption and human rights violations.
The measure raises concerns that the “black list”, which formerly included only Russian citizens (predominantly government officials), may now apply also to Armenia.
Speaking to Tert.am, Styopa Safaryan, the founder of the Armenian Center of Strategic and National Studies, described the decision as a tool enabling the Congress to impose sanctions not only upon foreign countries’ officials but also US citizens responsible for corruption, torture, murder or other violations of human rights.
“Both former and current government members may be easily blacklisted. The former government members were comprehensively engaged in money laundering and were found to have spent money ineffectively. As for the current administration, any failure to combat corruption may serve as grounds for enforcing sanctions. ”
The sanctions in the Magnitsky Act require banning not only the said group of individuals’ entry to the United States but also blocking their access to the US financial systems and banks.
Back in 2010, Armenian businessmen-MP Samvel Aleksanyan (ruling Republican Party) was reported to be having difficulty in obtaining a visa for the United States. After repeated rejections by the US Embassy, he eventually turned to the Heritage party (of which Safaryan is a member) for help. “He had great hopes and expectations, which certainly got crushed,” the politician said.
But he hesitated to attribute that to any sanction. “In all likelihood, there were political reasons,” Safaryan said, not ruling out the possibility that the Magnitsky Act may now apply to a range of other Armenian government officials.