Senate passes Russia trading bill that includes controversial human rights clause

The Senate has passed, by a vote of 92-4, a bill that lifts Cold-war era trade restrictions with Russia. The bill has the full support of President Obama. “As American companies have greater access to the Russian market, U.S. exports are expected to increase, and more U.S. exports mean more American jobs,” Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank said in a statement.

“The legislation will ensure that American businesses and workers are able to take full advantage of the WTO rules and market access commitments that the United States worked so hard to negotiate,” added Obama.

The Russian government, however, is not quite so enthusiastic about it. Russian officials had been warning against a provision in the bill that publicizes the names of human rights violators in Russia and are threatening to retaliate with a similar provision. “The decision of the U.S. Senate … is a performance in the theater of the absurd,” Russia’s foreign ministry said. “It is either that people in Washington forgot which year it is now and think that the ’Cold War’ has not ended, or the senators are carried away by self-PR and ignore the obvious thing.”