Clinton working towards ending cold war sanctions against Russia

AFP reported US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced hope Saturday that the US Congress would work to end Cold War-era trade restrictions on Russia but also raised concerns on human rights.                   

The so-called Jackson-Vanik amendment of 1974 tied US commerce with the then Soviet Union to human rights, depriving normal trading relations in a bid to pressure Moscow to allow emigration of its Jewish community.                 

“We hope that the Congress will act on this important piece of legislation this month,” Clinton said in a speech to an Asia-Pacific summit in the Russian port city of Vladivostok.                          

Lawmakers have pushed for the replacement of Jackson-Vanik with a new law that would deny visas and freeze assets of Russian officials involved in the 2009 death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison.                  

A senior State Department official said that Clinton “raised our ongoing concerns about human rights in Russia” during talks in Vladivostok with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.             

The official declined to give more details about the discussion but said that Clinton addressed “recent sentences” and new Russian laws seen as restricting freedom of speech and the activities of non-governmental groups.              

The United States has criticized Russia for jailing the dissident punk rock group Pussy Riot over a performance in a Moscow church.