Bill S -226, which recently passed both the Senate and the House of Commons in Canada, may cause some sleepless nights for Hungarian strongman, Viktor Orbán, as he races towards an unprecedented third consecutive term in office in Hungary’s upcoming national elections. It may also have some unintended side-effects on the investigation into Russia’s intervention into last year’s US presidential elections .
The new Canadian legislation promises restrictive measures in respect of foreign nationals responsible for gross violations of internationally recognized human rights legislation and to make related amendments to the Canadian Government’s Special Economic Measures Act and to its Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The Canadian law has aroused the anger of Russian President Putin, whose personal financial empire, reportedly worth 40 billion US, is spread far and wide among various offshore banks and holdings. The new Canadian legislation may also snare his closest political disciple, the leader of Hungary’s Mafia State, Viktor Orbán.
The Canadian law, along with the one in the US is named for Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in prison under mysterious circumstances after investigating a tax fraud engineered by Putin and his associates. British businessman, Bill Browder, who was a business associate of Magnitsky, has been a prominent campaigner for these kinds of laws in Western countries. As soon as Canada passed its new Act, Russia instructed Interpol to arrest Browder and ship him to Russia. It took American and EU officials 48 hours to reverse the Interpol sanctions against Browder, who is a constant target of Russian assassination attempts.
Bill Browder speaking on CBC.
In an interview, with Global News, one of Canada’s largest News networks, Browder said: “I am one hundred per cent sure that this action was a direct result of my advocating for seven years for the Canadian Magnitsky Act and having it finally succeed.” As the first indictments by the Special Prosecutor in the USA into Russia’s interference in the US elections are being executed, we should be reminded: It was Russia’s effort to lobby the Trump campaign for changes in the American Magnitsky Act that catapulted Donald Trump Jr, Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner into the limelight after they met last June with lawyers close to the Russian President.
The new Act forbids Canadian business dealings with foreign nationals who are “responsible for, or complicit in, extrajudicial killings, torture or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” The Orbán regime fits the bill to a T. Orbán and his Party are allegedly the beneficiaries from a multi billion dollar global slush fund, put together by the Azerbaijan Dictator, Ilham Aliyev, to whitewash his human rights abuses in the global mass media and among Western politicians. Orbán is one of the loudest promoters of the ruthless Azeri Dictator. According to Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perception Index, Azerbaijan was ranked 119th out of 168 countries compared to 2001, when it was ranked 87th out of 90 countries. Hungary is a bit better, but according to TI, OECD and EU studies, the Hungarian government is the leading abuser of EU funds, within the European Union, and government sanctioned corruption is rampant in this country.
After a visit last year with his Azeri benefactor, Orbán consented to the dictator’s demand to free a vicious Azeri murderer from a Hungarian jail, where he was spending time for murdering an innocent Armenian citizen with an ax. The Azeri Dictator considers the jailed Azeri murderer as a national hero and wanted him home. Orbán and his Party were allegedly paid 7 million US for releasing the murderer to a hero’s welcome in Azerbaijan. So where is the American connection?
The Azeri Dictator’s last election campaign in 2013 was coordinated by the now deceased Arthur J. Finkelstein, a well known Republican strategist and a trusted associate of Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Donald Trump. Finkelstein and his partner, George Birnbaum, another Republican insider close to the Trump team, also served as Orbán’s chief political strategists during the past decade. They cornered the market among the far flung corrupt dictatorships of the former Soviet Empire. The Operations Manager of the Azeri Dictator’s election campaign was also a trusted Republican with ties to Trump, Jo Anne Barnhart, who happens to be the current head of the Orbán government’s lobby group in the US – the Magyar Foundation. J.D. Gordon, National Security Advisor to the Trump Team and the deputy of Jeff Sessions during the campaign, was a frequent visitor to the Hungarian embassy in Washington and to Budapest. He publicly reassured Orbán’s team, that Trump will be a great friend of the Hungarian Dictator, after he is in the White House. Jeff Session wrote a personal letter to the Hungarian Ambassador in Washington on September 20th, in which he wrote that „Hungary now serves as a global beacon for the power of freedom, democracy and human rights. Economic prosperity flows from democratic traditions and Hungary is proof of this rule.” (Letter of Jeff Session to Ambassador Réka Szemerkényi. September 20, 2016.) Szemerkényi frequently boasted in Washington diplomatic circles, that she had the closest ties to the Trump team in the White House. Once the Congressional investigations started in February of this year, this kind of bravado became a threat to Trump as well as to Orbán. Szemerkényi was summarily fired, without any explanation, and taken out of the limelight. When pressed by journalists for why he fired one of his closest comrades, Orbán shrugged slyly and said, „I don’t concern myself with womens’ issues.”
Orbán’s government has been censured by the UN Commissioner on Human Rights, as well as by the European Union, for numerous Rule of Law and Human Rights violations over the years. (Most recently, on May 17th of this year, by a majority vote of the EU Parliament.) Orbán is described by many, including the American Republican Senator John McCain, as a „ruthless dictator” and as the head of the European Union’s only Mafia State. He has reason to worry about Canada’s new Magnetsky Act.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov promised swift retaliation against Canada. It remains to be seen how Hungary will respond to the Canadian challenge, that threatens to turn up the heat under Orbán, who is heading to the polls in a national election slated for April 2018. He has been reportedly angling for an official visit to the White House, and to Canada before the April elections to demonstrate his respectability back home. This new Canadian Legislation may jeopardize his aggressive lobbying efforts.
We, along with others, have reported on the Russian Secret Services deep penetration into Hungary and on the Orbán government’s partnership role in the Russian efforts to influence the outcome of the last US elections. (See: András B. Göllner. „The Budapest Bridge”. Hungarian Free Press, April 13, 14, 21, 2017, and its sequel „Creatures in the Budapest Hills”. The latter identified by name the army of Alt-Right extremists who flocked to Hungary during last year’s presidential race to provide fodder to the the Robert Mercer funded, and Cambridge Analytica co-ordinated bot campaign, against Hillary Clinton.)
The new Canadian legislation is bound to raise quite a few ripples in Hungary, as well as among investigators into Russia’s and possibly Hungary’s role in last year’s US elections.
András Göllner
