Bipartisan Effort Underway to Include Anti-Corruption, Sanctions Bills in NDAA

Some bills would specifically target Russia, including the Navalny 35 measure, which could require the U.S. to impose sanctions on 35 Russian keptocrats and human rights abusers identified by the Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, named after the imprisoned Russian political opposition figure (see 2108230065). Other bills include the Combating Global Corruption Act, which would create a State Department program to identify countries that meet certain anti-corruption standards, and the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Reauthorization Act, which would expand the scope of people subject to U.S. human rights sanctions.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said he’s “optimistic” the Senate will include the Combating Global Corruption Act and the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Reauthorization Act in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Bill. “We're going to get to the finish line on those bills,” Cardin said during a Nov. 18 hearing held by the Helsinki Commission, a committee composed of members from the Senate, House and administration.

But Cardin, the commission’s chair, said he is unsure whether the other bills will be included. “We're going to work to get them done,” he said, but if not, they will try to find other “vehicles to move” them.

Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., strongly urged both chambers to adopt all the bills, especially the Navalny 35 measure, which he said is overdue. The bill is “particularly important in that it will require the Biden administration to do what it has unfortunately not yet done,” Malinowski said, “and that is to seriously evaluate whether the Magnitsky corruption prong can and should be used with respect to the people who are responsible for the corruption Navalny exposed.”

Malinowski, Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., and others also introduced the Enablers Act last month, which would impose stronger financial due diligence requirements on public relations firms, investment advisers, art dealers and others. The lawmakers said the bill should also be part of the NDAA. “Our banks have due diligence requirements that force them to ask: Where is this pile of cash that you want to deposit derived from?” Malinowski said. “But if you're a real estate company, an accounting firm, a trust company, an art dealer, you don't have to ask those basic questions. And that's the loophole that has been exploited by bad guys from all over the world.”

Although he is unsure whether the Enablers Act will pass, Cardin said he and other lawmakers may look to expand the U.S.’s Magnitsky sanctions to target U.S. enablers mentioned in the bill. “We've also talked with our global partners as to the expansion of [sanctions] statutes to include these enablers,” Cardin said. “But I’m worried [whether] we can stay one step ahead of the people who are enabling this by any legislative efforts that we do in this area.”

Malinowski urged senators to “use your voice in the coming days to ensure that all of these provisions end up in the Senate version of the [NDAA], or at the very least are accepted by the conference” that the House and Senate may convene to reconcile their differences.

Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s chief of staff for his 2018 election campaign, told the commission that more U.S. sanctions against Russia would continue to pressure the Vladamir Putin regime, especially if those sanctions are coordinated with the United Kingdom. “The main destination of the assets stolen from Russian taxpayers is definitely London,” Volkov said. “So we believe very much in the possible U.S.-U.K. cooperation on sanctions of Russian oligarchs.”