Better in their words…

I’ve asked before: Is Obama “faithfully executing” the laws of the United States or isn’t he?
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A year ago President Obama signed the Magnitsky Act, an historic human-rights bill aimed at Russian abuses. [As far as I understand, this is the law of the land.]  The Administration has now marked the anniversary by flouting the law and reneging on its promise to tighten the sanctions.

The Magnitsky Act bans the worst abusers of human rights in Russia from traveling to or doing business in the U.S. Last April, the Administration sanctioned 18 Russian officials. These were minor players implicated in the 2009 death in police custody of corruption whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky.

The law is also supposed to hold senior Russian officials accountable for other abuses. The Administration told the bill’s bipartisan advocates to sit tight and expect that bigger names would be added in the annual report on the law’s implementation, due Dec. 14. Names can be added or removed at any time.

Our sources say officials at Treasury and the State Department settled on up to 20 new names. Prominent on the new list was Alexander Bastrykin, who runs the Kremlin’s Investigative Committee. His agency has led the crackdown on political opposition in the wake of large anti-government protests in 2012. U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul told journalists in Moscow on Dec. 11 that “the process is taking place” and “in the end [Secretary] Kerry will decide this.”

But then the Administration delayed the release of the report. A week after the report’s Dec. 20 deadline, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes broke the news to the Itar-Tass agency that “we are not anticipating adding new names [to the Magnitsky list]—certainly by the end of the year or in the near future, early next year.”

Why veto the expanded Magnitsky list? Russia’s human-rights record hasn’t miraculously improved. In his interview with Itar-Tass, Mr. Rhodes suggested the answer. He praised Moscow’s role in striking a deal with Syria’s Bashar Assad to give up his chemical weapons stockpile in return for removing any Western threat to attack his military forces, who are now liberated to try to finish off the rebels. Mr. Rhodes also noted Russian support for nuclear talks with Iran.

Human rights aren’t the only U.S. interest, but an Administration should at least get something concrete for mollifying Vladimir Putin by muffling U.S. values. Mr. Obama is getting nothing. He had tried to scuttle the Magnitsky Act in Congress, saying it would complicate his “reset” policy of diplomatic outreach to the Kremlin. But the reset was already a flop.

Now the Administration is refusing to fulfill its legal responsibilities under Magnitsky in return for more illusory Russian cooperation. The Syria deal let Russia save its closest Arab ally, Assad, while inducing a U.S. retreat. Sanctions relief for Iran is in Russia’s commercial interests, and a final nuclear deal that diminishes America’s credibility in the Middle East is another Putin goal. Meanwhile, Mr. Putin is trying to reconsolidate the Russian near-abroad and freeze out the U.S.

The Magnitsky walkback suggests that Mr. Obama’s main overseas priority is negotiating a deal with Iran, and everything else will serve that end. The lesson for Congress is to pass a new Iran sanctions bill that puts Mr. Obama on notice that it will reject a bad nuclear deal.

Obama’s Magnitsky Walkback – WSJ.com.