BREAKING: The U.S. plans to level new sanctions against Russia and China under the Global Magnitsky Act.
These sanctions will deal with Russia's use of Iranian UAVs, human rights abuses from Russia and China, and China's illegal fishing in the Pacific region.
Britain unveiled coordinated human rights sanctions today, which were focused on Iran and Russia.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-...na-11670547885
WASHINGTON—The U.S. is set to levy fresh sanctions against Russia and China on Friday, actions that include targeting Russia’s deployment of Iranian drones in Ukraine, alleged human-rights abuse by both nations and Beijing’s support of alleged illegal fishing in the Pacific, according to officials familiar with the matter.
The bulk of the expected sanctions are to be imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act
, named after a whistleblower who died in a Moscow jail after accusing officials of corruption.The U.S., by using those powers to sanction high-profile government, military and business officials accused of human-rights abuses and corruption, says it aims to hold them accountable and deter others.….
The sanctions will freeze any assets the targets have within U.S. jurisdiction, prevent their travel to the U.S. and prohibit business dealings with them. For government and business officials, the actions can complicate their international travel and financing…..
The targets include officialsallegedly responsible for Russia’s filtration camps for Ukrainians caught behind the front, where groups such as
Human Rights Watch have alleged the military has tortured citizens and committed other war crimes.
Separately from the Magnitsky sanctions, the administration also plans to hit several Russia defense industry entities tied to the transfer of
Iranian military drones Moscow has been using to deadly effect in attacking Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, according to the officials.
By penalizing Russia for its Iranian drone supplies, the U.S. says it aims to disrupt the deployment of a weapon that Ukrainians say has terrorized the population and is manufactured by Tehran’s U.S.-sanctioned weapons program.
Additionally, the U.S. prepared sanctions against Russia’s central election commission, which presides over an election system that Western officials broadly condemn as fraudulent and that has ensured President
Vladimir Putin, a former spy, control of the country for nearly a quarter-century.
The Biden administration also is set to sanction around 170 largely Chinese entities allegedly involved in
illegal fishing throughout the Pacific, which Western officials say Beijing has used not only to feed the world’s largest population, but also to help the Communist government expand its maritime power through the establishment of a network of ports outside of China.
Besides exhausting fishing stocks critical to the ecosystem more broadly, analysts say China uses its fishing vessels to further its geopolitical aims. “China’s national and local governments recruit some commercial fishing vessels into maritime militia activity,” the Congressional Research Service said in an April report for lawmakers. Government officials then “require them to operate in specified waters to defend national sovereignty rights, participate in training and sovereignty defense, and provide support to the PLA in combat,”
the CRS said, referring to the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military.
One U.S. official said sanctions had also been drafted to list Chinese entities allegedly involved in human-rights abuses against Tibetans. Beijing has used its security forces as part of an effort to control the group, human-rights groups say, harassing suspected followers of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.