38. The Malkin delegation
All the planets seemed to be lining up for a smooth passage of the Magnitsky Act. The business community was on board, the human rights community was on board, the Obama administration was on board, Republicans, Democrats, everyone. I had a hard time seeing how anything could stand in the way.
But then, on July 9, 2012, less than two weeks before the joint bill was to come before the Senate Finance Committee, the Russian government made a last-ditch effort to derail the bill. It was sending a high-level delegation to Washington to present a «parliamentary investigation into the Magnitsky case». It indicated that it wanted to establish a joint commission between the US Congress and the Russian Parliament to review the case, but like Kerry before them, its real objective was to slow down the bill so it slipped into the next Congress and died a slow death.
This delegation consisted of four members of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper chamber of Parliament, and was led by a parliamentarian named Vitaly Malkin, a Russian billionaire who was number 1,062 on the Forbes list.
When I looked up Malkin, I discovered that in 2009 he had been named as a «member of a group engaging in trans-national crime» by the Canadian government and that despite his fierce denials, he was banned from entering Canada. I didn’t understand how someone with this kind of reputation could be leading a delegation to Washington, but then I found a picture of him on the steps of the Capitol shaking hands in connection to a $1 million gift to the US Library of Congress. I guess $1 million buys a certain amount of tolerance in Washington.
In spite of his background, I could imagine how earnest members of Congress would want to learn whatever «new details» this parliamentarian possessed about the Magnitsky case. I knew that Malkin’s presentation would include forgeries and other fabrications from the FSB, but how would a member of Congress be able to understand that in a thirty-minute briefing?
I spent most of the day on July 9 calling different congressional offices, trying to find out who’d agreed to meet the delegation. Kyle told me that Cardin had refused, but that McCain, Wicker, and McGovern had all agreed. Kyle also heard that the delegation would be given an audience at the president’s National Security Council and at the State Department. When these meetings were finished, the Malkin delegation was going to hold a press conference on July 11 at the Russian embassy to announce «new details of the case».
Most of Malkin’s meetings took place on July 10, and I frantically called everyone I knew in Washington to try to get some feedback on how they went, but I didn’t have any luck. Even Kyle was unavailable that day.
I would have repeated this exercise on the eleventh, but unfortunately I was flying with my family for a trip to San Diego. This couldn’t have come at a worse time, but I wasn’t going to cancel it. As I’d promised Elena when this whole mess started, we weren’t going to let the Russians ruin our lives.
We boarded the flight at noon, and even though I was distracted, I helped Elena with our children in whatever way I could. We settled in, and Jessica and I played a game of make-believe with a pair of stuffed giraffes as the plane taxied and took off. As we climbed higher, she suddenly blurted, «Daddy, who is Magnitsky?»
I’d never explicitly spoken with Jessica about Sergei, but she’d heard his name so many times that it was part of her daily vocabulary. I thought carefully before I answered, «Sergei Magnitsky was a friend».
«Did something happen to him?»
«Yes. Some very bad people put him in jail and hurt him and asked him to tell a lie».
«Did he?»
«No, he didn’t. And because of that they made his life hard and kept him from seeing his family».
«Why did they want him to lie?» she asked, making her giraffe dance on the armrest between us.
«Because they stole lots of money and wanted to keep it».
She let the giraffe fall in her lap. After a few moments she asked, «What happened to Magnitsky?»
«Well, sweetie… he died».
«Because he wouldn’t lie?»
«Exactly. He died because he wouldn’t lie».
«Oh». She then picked up her giraffe and turned it around, saying something inaudible to it in her private child’s language. I sat there for a few seconds with my thoughts before she said, «I hope that won’t happen to you».
I blinked, fighting back a tear. «It won’t, sweetie. I promise».
«O'kay». The seat-belt light went off and Jessica got up to talk to Elena about something, but our conversation hit me hard. It saddened me, but more than anything else, it made me angry. I needed to know what was going on in Washington with the Malkin delegation as soon as possible.
As soon as we were on the ground eleven hours later, I switched on my phone and called Kyle, bracing for the worst. He picked up on the first ring with the same casual voice I’d grown accustomed to. «Hey, Bill. What’s up?»
«I’ve been on a plane all day. What’s happening with the Russians? Do we still have a law?»
«Absolutely. Their intervention, if that’s what you can call it, was a complete clusterfuck», he said with a chuckle. «You should have seen it».
He told me that the first point Malkin made to the senators was that Sergei was a drunk and out of shape, and that his death was somehow due to his «alcoholism». Not only was this offensive, but the senators knew it to be untrue. They were familiar with the independent reports that determined that Sergei died because he was tortured and beaten, and because he hadn’t received proper medical attention.
Malkin’s second point came after he plonked a pile of redacted documents in Russian in front of the senators declaring that these papers constituted «absolute proof» that Sergei and I were crooks and had stolen the $230 million. This ploy didn’t move them either. Many of the senators had seen the Russian Untouchables videos and knew all about the unexplained wealth of Kuznetsov, Karpov, and Stepanova, not to mention the Swiss money-laundering case and the frozen millions belonging to Stepanova’s husband. The senators reminded Malkin of these inconvenient facts, and he responded that the Russian authorities had looked into all of these allegations and found nothing wrong.
Kyle then told me that the press conference had been an even bigger disaster. When a Chicago Tribune reporter asked for a comment about the documents that proved Sergei had been beaten by riot guards, Malkin replied dismissively, «Yeah, maybe he was kicked one time, maybe two, but this is not the reason for his death».
When news of Malkin’s Washington fiasco reached Moscow, the chairman of Russia’s Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council completely disowned Malkin and his delegation, saying that there had been «no parliamentary investigation. These were his personal views and were not approved by anybody».
For all the noise and drama that had built up around this last desperate attempt by the Russians, it achieved the exact opposite of its goal. Instead of driving people away from the Magnitsky Act, it drove them even closer. Our support was now rock solid, and there was no way that Magnitsky wouldn’t pass in the Finance Committee.
Without incident, on July 18 the Magnitsky Act did just that. The next step was a full vote in both chambers of the US Congress, which would happen after the summer recess.
Things quieted down during the recess, and I enjoyed a properly relaxing vacation with my kids for the first time in years. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been able to just let go and unwind. In the middle of our trip, my kids begged me to take them camping. We borrowed a tent and some sleeping bags, and I drove the family to Palomar Mountain State Park, an hour and half drive north of San Diego, where we got a campsite for the night. We brought wood from the ranger station and made a campfire and explored the forest. David cooked and we ate a dinner of spaghetti, tomato sauce, and hot dogs off plastic plates. As night fell, owls hooted and other birds cooed in the treetops, and the smell of burning wood filled the air. It was one of the best evenings I’d had in a long time.