Taking on the Kremlin

By John Pidkowich

International lawyer Robert Amsterdam spoke about the role of a new organization bringing to the attention of fellow Canadians some of the issues and immediate threats that face not only the Ukrainian community but other communities in Canada dealing with a “very new spectre” of Russia and its foreign policy.

The Central Eastern European Commerce Initiative is “a strategic union of the Chambers of Central and Eastern European countries whose main goal is to establish and cooperatively promote bilateral trade and commerce relationships between Canada and the countries it represents”.

The talk was organized by the Canada Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, held at UNF Toronto Trident Hall on May 19. A CUCC panel comprised of Master of Ceremonies and VP Lubomyr Kwasnycia, President Zenon Potichny, VP Bob Onyschuk and Honorary Consul General of Estonia Laas Leivat were joined by Robert Amsterdam via video-link from Hong Kong.

Bob Onyschuk introduced Robert Amsterdam as a lawyer, co-author, political science commentator and op-ed writer. He is a founding partner of the law firm Amsterdam & Peroff, specializing in international business law, and he particularly has specialized in politically complex commercial cases. In 2003, Amsterdam was retained by the Russian company Yukos to defend former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom the Russian government had charged for alleged tax evasion.

As Mr. Onyschuk recalled, Mr. Amsterdam spoke to the Chamber last year about he threat he saw coming from Russia to the countries of the near-abroad – Ukraine, the Baltics, Poland and Slovakia. He challenged diaspora communities in Canada and the United States to unite, to create a Central and Eastern European initiative and to oppose the pressure of political and economic power levered by Russia against those countries.  He has returned to speak about the “strategy on how to take on the Kremlin”.

Robert Amsterdam began by stating that – in taking on the Kremlin - one of the most important things to understand is that Russia’s foreign policy does not look after its national interests alone. “Corporate Russia is impacting all the political activities of the day. Ukraine is not under this offensive from Russia merely on a political or ideological basis – it is in many ways and economic basis. Russia is attempting to consolidate its economic power and the clans within the Russian elite are attempting to use that foreign policy to further their predatory and financial aims,” said Amsterdam.

Amsterdam drew attention to Article 71 of the Corporate Commercial Code in Russia which allows state-run enterprises to operate on a completely non-transparent basis, where government ministers can also chair companies and see no conflict of interest. The result is what Amsterdam has coined “pacted bargaining”, stating the idea that in foreign policy initiatives, “[Russia] engages as a representative of the different corporate groups as much as it engages as a state” offering a “virtual cornucopia of economic deals – civilian nuclear energy, oil and gas.” This “market disruption” is the export of the very non-transparency Russians suffer to other countries. Canada faces a unique series of challenges in dealing with Russia. Amsterdam believes a mobilized community response is answerable for Russia has suffered losses before European courts and tribunals relating to rule of law.

In the Yukos case, former shareholders brought arbitration that Russia had been bound by the Energy Charter and had to comply. Private investors took on the Russian State and won. As Amsterdam stated “This will have dramatic impact for Ukraine (and all countries of the near-abroad) in bringing a pattern of international law and arbitration to a more aggressive form of Russian energy policy. The core of Russian power has been the ability to default to lawlessness and the ability to leverage economic power for a political result.”

All discussion about the Great Famine of 1933 has been wiped away from the political map of Ukraine. Ukraine will no longer have an opportunity to join NATO given the new lease for the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, signed because of the major inducement of reduced gas price. Shockingly, Ukraine did not obtain from Russia any guarantees concerning the North Stream and South Stream, gas pipelines that could constitute a mortal blow to Ukraine’s ability to recover income through gas transit.

“The community could do a great deal as demonstrated by the energy charter cases. To the extent that commercial interests are behind goings on in Russia, we need to demand Canadian parliamentarians examine the internal rule of law in Russia,” said Amsterdam. He added “There is no greater barrier to trade than the opacity of that law” putting forth the idea that shedding light on the political nature of prosecutions and the inability of Canadian, Ukrainian and other countries’ firms to get a fair deal with Russia can provide the Ukrainian and other communities a method of indirect dialogue with those in power in the Kremlin.

Amsterdam emphasized that the community needs “to provide our legislators with details of Article 71 allowing Russian state corporations to engage illegally in anti-competitive practices. He also stated that “Russia in establishing a gas “OPEC” with Venezuela and Iran to raise natural gas prices, making another form of a market disruption - Russia fights a free market.” Amsterdam appealed to the community to bring to the attention of our legislators that we must have free markets – the will of the people, stating “Voting groups will demand and benchmark the ability of Canada to insist on fair and equitable treatment of its investors.”

In paraphrasing Andrei Sakharov: “How a country treats its own citizens depends on how it behaves outside its own quarters”, Amsterdam challenged the community to keep Russia’s behaviour in check by supporting our representatives to have/establish an agenda:

    - Regular monitored meetings with representatives of the leading parties;
          - of legislation that is being followed;
          - on the Artic negotiations; and
          - for Russian companies buying strategic Canadian assets when the sources of the funds may be expropriated assets of illegal transactions.

These are possibilities under Canadian Law and issues the community can be made known through the Central Eastern European Commerce Initiative by giving it a political mandate.

Amsterdam stressed the need for this organization to find a voice, showing “that we understand the threat when Vladimir Putin talks of merging the [Ukrainian and Russian] gas industry, that we understand the ongoing prosecution and uses of judges and prosecutors as political instruments, as seen sadly in Ukraine with the Tymoshenko case.”

By giving our voices to this initiative, not only are we empowered to bring Russia to account, but its call can “awaken fellow Canadian citizens to the dramatic cost of the neglect of the near-abroad in Canadian and American foreign policy,” concluded Amsterdam.

PHOTOS

1 - Robert Amsterdam

2 - In déjà vu, Robert Amsterdam by video-link challenges Community with new initiative