![neighbours from hell 3 russia neighbours from hell 3 russia](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1283190/capsule_616x353.jpg)
No longer will the Ukraine, Uzbekistan,Estonia and Armenia face the same problems, and therefore have to formulatelike-sounding agendas. It is still very common to hear references to "the former USSR"or "the former Soviet republics" or "the post-Soviet space", although theunity of that space is no more. IntroductionIn geopolitical terms, the demise of the Soviet Union has come close to arevolution.They sent a memo to the Senate entitled “Administration Comments on S.1039 Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law.” Though not meant to be made public, within a day it was leaked.Contested Borders in the Caucasus : Chapter IIIĬhapter III C ONTESTED B ORDERS IN THE C AUCASUS Russia's Security Interests and Policies in the Caucasus Region On July 20, 2011, the State Department showed its cards. They needed to come up with some other solution. However, if they publicly supported it, it would threaten Obama’s “reset” with Russia. If they openly opposed the law, it would look as if they were siding with the Russians. From the day that Kyle Scott at the State Department stonewalled me, I knew that the administration was dead set against this, but now they were in a tough spot. The Magnitsky Act was gathering so much momentum that it appeared it might be unstoppable. No senator, whether the most liberal Democrat or the most conservative Republican, would lose a single vote for banning Russian torturers and murderers from coming to America. There wasn’t a pro-Russian-torture-and-murder lobby in Washington to oppose it. The number of Senate cosponsors grew quickly, with three or four new senators signing on every month. This uncoordinated initiative worked beautifully. I didn’t have to recruit any of these people. There was Garry Kasparov, the famous chess grand master and human rights activist there was Alexei Navalny, the most popular Russian opposition leader and there was Evgenia Chirikova, a well-known Russian environmental activist. They pressed every senator who would talk to them to sign on.
![neighbours from hell 3 russia neighbours from hell 3 russia](https://images.sftcdn.net/images/t_app-cover-l,f_auto/p/1bd77746-090a-4175-baf0-aaaf6290d02f/2443240736/neighbours-from-hell-compilation-screenshot.jpg)
Following its introduction, a small army of Russian activists descended on Capitol Hill, pushing for the bill’s passage. The revised bill was officially introduced on May 19, 2011, less than a month after we posted the Olga Stepanova YouTube video. With those extra sixty-five words, my personal fight for justice had become everyone’s fight. Those new words said that in addition to sanctioning Sergei’s tormentors, the Magnitsky Act would sanction all other gross human rights abusers in Russia. After a dozen or so of these visits and letters, Senator Cardin and his cosponsors conferred and decided to expand the law, adding sixty-five words to the Magnitsky Act. They had inadvertently discovered a new method for fighting human rights abuses in authoritarian regimes in the twenty-first century: targeted visa sanctions and asset freezes. The senators quickly realized that they’d stumbled onto something much bigger than one horrific case.
![neighbours from hell 3 russia neighbours from hell 3 russia](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pX3wThST4IY/hqdefault.jpg)
After the bill was introduced they came to Washington or wrote letters to the Magnitsky Act’s cosponsors with the same basic message: “You have found the Achilles’ heel of the Putin regime.” Then, one by one, they would ask, “Can you add the people who killed my brother to the Magnitsky Act?” “Can you add the people who tortured my mother?” “How about the people who kidnapped my husband?” And on and on. Many other victims of human rights abuses in Russia saw the same thing. I wasn’t the only one who recognized this. “While these tactics were aggressive and crude, they confirmed that our legislation had touched a nerve.