General Discussion

The Magnitsky Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2012, but it followed a rocky and ultimately failed attempt by the administration to “reset” relations with Russia after a longstanding adversarial relationship.

[T]he Obama administration, with Clinton as Secretary of State, was actively trying to normalize relations with Russia, hoping Putin’s predecessor Dmitry Medvedev would serve as a moderating force. Part of that effort included hesitation by the administration to pass the Magnitsky Act.

Although in hindsight it’s clear the effort was doomed to fail, it seemed to start optimistically (despite prescient warnings from Russian critics of Putin, like chess champion Gary Kasparov). Medvedev and Obama hammered out an arms agreement in 2010. The Russians allowed the Americans to fly through their airspace to reach Afghanistan.

During this time, the Obama administration was criticized for its inaction on the Magnitsky Act — a move they feared would scuttle reset efforts.

Mrs. Clinton’s spokesman said she took aggressive steps on human-rights abuses in Russia and “personally acted to impose a ban on travel to the U.S. by several dozen officials believed to have been involved in Magnitsky’s death.” Sponsors of the congressional legislation said the move, coming in 2011, was a major step, but that it didn’t go far enough.

Kerry himself contests Browder’s account. “Bill Browder is a passionate and effective advocate and we all give him huge credit for honoring Sergei Magnitsky’s life and work by making sure the bill bearing his name became law,” Kerry said in an email to FP. “But he just happens to be wrong or misinformed about my role or my reasons for proceeding as we did.”

The legislation moved quickly through his committee, according to Kerry. “At no point did I ‘stall’ the bill,” he wrote. Compared to other legislation at the time, “the Magnitsky Act became law pretty darn swiftly.”