Magnitsky bill opens door to wider targets When the Magnitsky bill first started making its way through the US Congress a couple of years ago, its authors had one target in mind: to punish Russian officials behind the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who blew the whistle on a government corruption case and died in jail. With human rights causes, however, one powerful example can sometimes open the door to much broader action. This could well happen with the Magnitsky bill. As the legislation gets closer to passage - potentially this month - the human rights lobby is on the verge of winning an important tool to influence US foreign policy. While Russian corruption was the initial target, some in Congress are already thinking about other causes it can be used to pursue. And they have some big fish in mind. "If the bill stays as it is at the moment," says one Senate staff member involved with the legislation, "this will be as much about China as it is about Russia." When Magnitsky was doing some legal work for the Hermitage investment group, he discovered evidence that a group of Russian officials had effectively stolen $230m in tax payments made by Hermitage. When he detailed his allegations, he was arrested in late 2008 and accused of fraud. Nearly a year later, he died in jail after being denied medical treatment. Two years ago, a couple of Democrats in Congress started to push a bill that named the 60 Russian officials and police officers they said were behind Magnitsky's death. The bill proposed they be banned from visiting the US and their US assets be frozen. It gathered support on both sides of the aisle, but languished amid opposition from the White House. Yet when the Obama administration made Russian entry into the World Trade Organisation a priority this year, the bill's authors had their leverage - approval of Magnitsky became a condition for normalising trade relations with Russia. One of the difficulties with the bill has been how to target individual Russian officials without destroying relations with Moscow, whose help is needed on issues from Afghanistan to Iran. In the version of the bill that has now passed a Senate committee, the solution has been to give the legislation a global frame of reference. The target is not Russia, but human rights violators all over the world. "It requires the state department to pay more attention to human rights," says Ben Cardin, the Democratic senator who has been one of the bill's main supporters. Yet by taking the focus directly off Russia, the legislation could have much broader impact. The state department already produces a report every year on the human rights situation around the world, which lists important cases of abuse. The implication of the Senate bill is that the state department would have to publish a parallel document, naming the people responsible for committing some of these abuses. Leading members of Congress would also have the power to suggest names that should be on the list. For some in Congress, the bill could also be a tool to put pressure on China. In the 1990s, Congress voted every year on maintaining normal trading relations with China and human rights was one of the main issues. That power disappeared when China joined the World Trade Organisation, which some members of Congress backed because they believed more trade would open up China's political system. Given the lack of political reform in China over the past decade, there is a "lot of buyers" remorse" about that WTO vote, as one Senate staff member puts it. Magnitsky could give them a way back in. The Magnitsky bill could still change as it passes through Congress, since the House version is more directly focused on Russia. But such legislation can easily take on a life of its own, becoming an excuse for congressional involvement in cases the original authors did not imagine. It could become the pretext for the sort of high-profile naming-and-shaming that will delight human rights activists but fill diplomats with dread.