Ukraine Support Fund
Aid | Advocacy | Analysis
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
- Support the Global Magnitsky movement on social media. Follow and retweet posts from Bill Browder @Billbrowder
- Encourage your friends and colleagues to get involved, When posting to Twitter, use the hashtag #MagnitskyAct
- If you are a citizen of a country whose government has not yet passed Magnitsky legislation, organize a human-rights advocacy group to insist that your country's lawmakers pass this important law.
- Organize a public event with Bill Browder, by contacting book@billbrowder.com
To combat the threat of Russia's hybrid war, we support advocacy activities:
- the passage of legislation applying economic sanctions and other punitive measures targeting Russian state players and their proxies
- international conferences and other public forums
- citizen activism in defense of democratic principles and the rule of law, such as public rallies and demonstrations
- information campaigns using print & online editorials as well as social media
- online petitions
- public rallies and peaceful protests that focus public attention on governments or institutions that are complicit in the activities of bad state players on the world stage
The Ukraine Support Fund advocates for Ukraine's accession to NATO, as an essential aspect of protecting the security of Ukraine and Europe.
*IMPORTANT! AS OF DECEMBER 13, 2017 CANADA HAS ADDED UKRAINE TO THE AUTOMATIC FIREARMS COUNTRY CONTROL LIST
The Ukraine Support Fund endorses the international implementation of Global Magnitsky legislation, initially passed by the US Congress. The so-called "smart sanction law" is named after lawyer and auditor, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in Russian custody as he was investigating the Putin-government's massive corruption schemes. The Canadian Parliament recently passed the legislation, as have four other countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Estonia and Lithuania.
Recently, a campaign to pass the legislation was launched in Sweden.
Spearheaded by Magnitsky's client, American-born financier Bill Browder, the law authorizes government's to sanction foreign individuals for human rights violations and corruption, by targeting politicians, police chiefs, security service personnel, and businessmen from across the world for their involvement in torture, murder, extortion, coercion, bribery, and so on.
Vladimir Putin fears the legislation, because it targets the corrupt elite that supports his regime, by cutting them off from their assets, thereby ending impunity and hitting them where it hurts—in their wallets.
Ukraine Support Fund | 620 Spadina Ave., Toronto, Ontario M5S 2H4 | Tel: 647-749-1866 | office@ukrainesupportfund.org
Authoritarian leaders often launch wars against their neighbours to distract their own population from domestic economic problems and the lack of freedom in their own country. Under the guise of "patriotism" and " a historic mission", dictators often launch military conflicts to divert attention away from rampant corruption embedded at the highest levels of government.
Vladimir Putin's Russia is no exception. His forcible annexation of Crimea, war in Chechnya, Georgia, and now Ukraine, are as much about consolidating power at home, as they are about reviving outdated imperialism.
Russia's ruling elite fears public scrutiny and democratization, which poses a direct threat to the criminal political and financial dealings by which Russia's governing echelon clings to power. The Ukraine Support Fund believes that a stable and secure Ukraine and Europe, will continue to be threatened, so long as corruption, partnered with the FSB's control, continue to allow the Putin regime to use criminality and fraud to destroy political opposition in order to remain in power.
Exposing Kremlin Corruption
We have called on all political parties to support Petition E-968 (Ukraine), sponsored by James Bezan MP, presented in Canada's House of Commons on September 27, 2017. The petition, initiated by former Canadian Member of Parliament, Yuri Shymko, calls for:
- enhanced defense cooperation between Canada and Ukraine
- the provision of RADARSAT-2 imagery to the Ukrainian military
- lethal defensive military equipment for Ukraine
- adding Ukraine to Canada's the Automatic Firearms Country Control List*
The initial response from the Minister of National Defence,the Hon. Harjit Sajjan, through the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister is here. The response from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Chrystia Freeland, is available here.
Kremlin crimes in Crimea
The Russian regime continues to persecute, detain, torture, and imprison Ukrainian citizens who oppose Russia's illegal occupation and annexation of Crimea.
Working with the Canadian Association of Crimean Tatars, a member of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars, the Ukraine Support Fund supports an intensification of sanctions against the Russian government in response to the ongoing persecution of the region's indigenous people, the Crimean Tatars, as well as ethnic Ukrainians.
We call for the immediate withdrawal of Russian military troops and installations from the region and the return of Crimea to Ukraine.
The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group monitors and reports on the serious human rights violations taking place in Russian-occupied Crimea. Click here to read more:
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN RUSSIAN-OCCUPIED CRIMEA
Click here to read about the Russian government's recent sinister treatment of imprisoned Ukrainian filmmaker, Oleg Sentsov.
Ukraine's Defence & Security
The Global Magnitsky Act
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Public Awareness