Following the July 2016 attempted coup in Turkey, Helsinki Commission Co-Chair Senator Roger Wicker joined Fox Business Network to provide his perspective on recent events in the OSCE participating State and NATO Ally. Calling President Erdogan's subsequent actions "very disturbing," Co-Chairman Wicker noted, "There has been an all-out assault not only on the military -- on admirals and generals -- but also on the judiciary, on universities, on religious leaders." In addition to serving as the co-chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Senator Wicker is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and chairs the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) Committee on Political Affairs and Security.

Yuriy Yatsenko is an activist of the Euromaidan who was illegally imprisoned in Russia on political grounds and recently released. This is a shortened version of his testimony before the US Helsinki Commission in Washington on December 11, 2015. I am a Ukrainian citizen who was illegally arrested and detained by the Russian Federation for over a year for political reasons. Nadiya Savchenko, Oleg Sentsov and others who are less known have suffered and continue to suffer the same fate. In May 2014, I was in Russia's Kursk region with a friend on a business trip. During a routine document check that Russian police officers often practice, I was detained. At the police department, an FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) agent showed me a photograph of myself taken during the Euromaidan protests, which I suspect he had found on social media. The agent demanded that my friend and I provide false testimony; he wanted us to admit that we had been recruited by Right Sector or by the head of the Security Service of Ukraine to commit acts of terrorism in Russia. At the time, I was an ordinary student from western Ukraine and could not believe that such absurd accusations were being made against me. My western Ukrainian origin became an additional reason for Russian law enforcement personnel to harass me. After we refused to incriminate ourselves, they began beating us at regular intervals. We were also offered an option of going on Russian TV and giving a predetermined speech about being sent to Russia from Ukraine to commit subversive acts, but instead we turned to the FSB for protection to save us from the Ukrainian authorities and their persecution. We refused, so the harassment continued and turned into physical and psychological abuse. One FSB official threatened to hand me over to the president of Chechnya. At first, the abuse and the beatings were constant. I was regularly placed in punishment cells and solitary confinement. I remember one particularly brutal instance. Some special forces soldiers, wearing masks and uniforms bearing no insignia other than the colors of the Russian flag, put a bag over my head, took me into the woods and tortured me. They hanged me by my handcuffs for hours and beat me in the head, groin and other parts of the body. They strangled me. They also simulated an execution, firing a gun next to my head. The next morning, which was two weeks after my arrest, I used a shaving blade to cut my abdomen and the veins on my arms to stop this abuse. Only then was I taken to the hospital; there, I finally managed to inform my family about my whereabouts. Despite a court decision ordering our deportation, my friend and I were illegally kept at a special detention center for illegal immigrants for three months. During this period, beatings and torture were constant. Three months later, my friend was released and taken to the Ukrainian border, while I was suddenly charged with possessing explosives. The court found me guilty in spite of the absurdity of these accusations and the absence of any evidence. At first, I was sentenced to two years in prison, but an appeals court reduced the sentence to nine months. By that time, I had already spent a year in detention, so I was released. The fact that I'm free now is a testament to the publicity campaigns, international pressure and coordinated work of human rights advocates and lawyers. When I was in detention, guards informed me from time to time that another article about my case appeared in the press, or that another press conference dedicated to my case was held. They seemed to be alarmed by this activism, and kept saying that it should be stopped, that everything should be "done quietly." That is why public events in support of prisoners are extremely important; they signal to the repressive regime that it is being watched closely and that none of the prisoners are forgotten. At least 13 Ukrainians are detained illegally somewhere in the Russian Federation, and at least eight prisoners are being held in occupied Crimea, both Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars. The criminal cases against them are fabricated, most have been brutally tortured and some have been deprived of their right to meet with an attorney or a Ukrainian consul for over a year. These are people of various ages, professions and politics, but they share one thing—their lives have become an instrument of Russian state-sponsored propaganda that has created the image of Ukraine as a mortal enemy. Kremlin officials constantly look for ways to justify their hybrid war in Ukraine, which is why innocent Ukrainian citizens are proclaimed to be terrorists, spies and fascists. I appeal to you on behalf of the #LetMyPeopleGo campaign. There are no independent courts in Russia; this is why politically motivated cases have no chance of being decided fairly. Only international pressure can help achieve the release of those detained. We are waiting for the return of Savchenko, Olexandr Kolchenko, Sentsov, Gennadiy Afanasiev, Olexii Chirnii, Sergiy Lytvynov, Mykola Karpiuk, Stanislav Klyh, Olexandr Kostenko, Haiser Dzhemilev, Yurii Soloshenko, Valentyn Vyhyvskii and Viktor Shur. We also demand that Russia stop occupying Crimea and that Akhtem Chyihoz, Ali Asanov, Mustafa Dehermendzhy, Yuriy Ilchenko, Ruslan Zaytullaev, Nuri Primov, Rustam Vaytov and Ferat Sayfullaev be freed. It is likely that this list is incomplete. Nevertheless, we demand that Russia release all of its prisoners who have been subject to politically motivated persecution.

U.S. senators proposed legislation recently that would authorize sanctions on human rights abusers and corrupt officials across the globe. The Commission will come to order, and good afternoon to everybody. I want to welcome everyone joining us this afternoon, especially to His Excellency, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacˇic´, who is also the Chairman-in-Office for the OSCE. Your chairmanship this year of the Organization for Security andCooperation in Europe (OSCE) comes at a moment of tragedy, of tremendous human suffering in the region. One OSCE member, the Russian Government, is tearing the heart out of a neighboring member, as we all know, Ukraine. Today there are more than 5,600 dead and almost 1.5 million internally displaced persons in Ukraine, with no end in sight. Russian weapons, special forces and all sorts of shady Russian-led mercenaries, proxies and criminal gangs are creating vast ill-defined and constantly shifting zones of outright war, lower-level conflict and chaos. These zones are home to millions of men, women and children who live there, or at least try to. Only a few days ago, Bishop Shevchuk, patriarch of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, called it the greatest humanitarian catastrophe in Eastern Europe since the end of World War II. Your Excellency, we will look forward to hearing from you today about what the OSCE, under your chairmanship, proposes to do to respond to the humanitarian needs—of course, some of this you’re already doing—and to the Russian aggression. We’ll be especially interested to hear about the special monetary mission and the Minsk agreements. Although the latest Minsk agreements were signed only two weeks ago, there are already serious violations. For example, last week the people of the rail town Debaltseve were subject to shelling and their city was captured, in violation of the Minsk agreements. Russia and its proxies must adhere to the Minsk agreements and immediately stop all cease-fire violations, allow OSCE monitors access to where they need to be, and withdraw heavy weapons from the front lines. Understanding that the OSCE is a consensus organization, meaning that the Russian Government has an effective veto over many significant actions, we believe the OSCE is still able and responsible to speak the truth about the conflict to find ways to mitigate it and to help the people of Ukraine. Our government will support you in this, I can assure you. They already are. And certainly the Co-Chairman, Roger Wicker, Ranking Senator Ben Cardin, who is here and was in Ukraine several months ago—all of us together will do everything we can to support you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to also hearing about fighting human trafficking and anti-Semitism, issues that we discussed when we met last week at the Winter Meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. In my capacity as the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative for Human Trafficking Issues, I hope to be able to work with you and to update internal OSCE regulations so that, ‘‘No activities of the OSCE executive structures, including contracts for goods and services, contribute to any form of trafficking in persons.’’ That was agreed on, as you know, at the Kyiv ministerial decision in 2013. I look forward to the support of the Serbian chairmanship to ensure institutional commitment from the OSCE that matches the magnitude of the challenge we face in combating modern-day slavery. To speak for a moment about domestic issues in Serbia, I know that we spoke about this the other day. But it is important that we all take a lead—whether it be in the United States or in Serbia or anywhere else—to combat human trafficking. Again, I recommend that you and your staff look very carefully at the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report put out by the U.S. Department of State. It is a very fine statement of what is actually going on, on the prevention side, the prosecution side of traffickers, and the protection for the victims. We also look forward to working with you on implementing the recommendations of the Berlin +10 Conference, to make sure that the escalating anti-Semitism that is happening throughout Europe, and really throughout the world, is combated as robustly as humanly possible. I’d like to now yield to Mr. Hastings.

A U.S. lawmaker has introduced legislation that would deny U.S. visas to senior Azerbaijani officials due to what he calls Baku's "appalling human rights violations." U.S. Representative Chris Smith (Republican-New Jersey) introduced the bill, titled the Azerbaijan Democracy Act of 2015, in the House of Representatives on December 16. "The human rights situation has seriously deteriorated in Azerbaijan, causing damage to its relations with the United States and other countries, and has damaged its own society by imprisoning or exiling some of its best and brightest citizens," Smith told a hearing of Congress's Helsinki Commission held in conjunction with the announcement of the legislation.

Congress, or at least parts of it, is getting restless with the White House approach to human rights abuses in Central Asia. A recent hearing  by the House of Representatives’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on the region’s terrible human rights record, and the implications for U.S. policy, is the latest example. Led by Co-Chairman Jim McGovern (D) of Massachusetts, members asked tough questions that revealed an interest in strengthening the U.S. government’s approach to this increasingly authoritarian area of the world... The White House and Congress should revise the current strategy to re-assert conditions on providing military aid in the Foreign Appropriations Act (which the Obama administration has waived every year since 2012), enact sanctions under the International Religious Freedom Act (also waived), and craft a visa ban and asset freeze for officials responsible for serious abuses. McGovern emphasized this last point saying that the US government needs to tell people entrenched in governments with horrendous human rights records that, “[I]f you are not going to get justice within your own country, understand there is a consequence outside of your country.” Indeed, McGovern along with Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (H.R. 624) in January, named after a Russian lawyer who died in jail after exposing financial fraud by officials. It would direct the president to place targeted visa and financial sanctions on individuals deemed responsible for “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” or officials responsible for “significant corruption.”  A similar version was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The inaugural European Games have opened in Azerbaijan in a lavish ceremony amid criticism of the country's poor record on human rights... "The colorful festivities in Baku must not blind anyone to the Azerbaijani government’s terrible and worsening human rights record," said Chris Smith, chairman of the Helsinki Commission and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Noting that "the eyes of Europe will be on Baku" for the next 17 days, he said, "It is sad that the European Olympic Committees do not require that a potential host government take human rights seriously." Smith added that "last month’s closure of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty bureau in Baku was the culmination of a monthslong campaign to silence one of the last free media sources in the country."

An outspoken opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin was near death Friday from an apparent poisoning just three months after his close political ally was gunned down near the Kremlin, and supporters want him evacuated to Europe or Israel to determine what sickened him. Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., who has long been based in Washington, was in a hotel in Moscow when he suddenly lost consciousness May 26 and was hospitalized with what his wife called "symptoms of poisoning." The 33-year-old is a coordinator for Open Russia, a nongovernmental organization which on the previous day released a documentary film accusing close Putin crony and Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov of human rights abuses including torture and murder. "I am deeply concerned about the mysterious illness of Vladimir Kara-Murza, especially given the recent murder of Boris Nemtsov and the number of Putin's opponents who have been poisoned," [Helsinki Commission Chair] Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said in a statement.

The chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Political Affairs and Security for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has raised concerns about Russian military support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and its "complete suspension" of work under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). The chairman, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker [who also serves as co-chair of the U.S. Helsinki Commission], said in a statement on March 13 that he was "disappointed in Russia’s decision to turn its back on its international obligations" under the CFE treaty. Wicker rejected Russia’s argument that its withdrawal from the treaty was forced by NATO actions.

Lawmakers in the House pushed forward last week on legislation to pressure China to raise the value of its currency, while this week legislators will highlight the case of a Russian oil tycoon believed by many to be in prison solely for his vocal opposition to the Kremlin. Both are sensitive foreign policy areas that the White House may well wish Congress would avoid. House Democrats last week advanced a bill meant to impose tariffs against Chinese goods due to the undervaluation of the yuan. Legislation put forward by Reps. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) was pushed through Ways and Means on voice vote Friday, with tweaks made to not violate international trade rules. Fearing rankled relations with China, the Obama administration had urged lawmakers to lay off while urging Beijing to enact currency reforms. But the administration in recent weeks has shown signs it is growing impatient with China, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner vowing to bring up the issue at the Nov. 11-12 G-20 summit in South Korea. "For years, the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration, and Members of Congress have tried to persuade the Chinese government to allow its currency to respond to market forces. No significant progress has been made," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement Wednesday. "It is time for Congress to pass legislation that will give the Administration leverage in its bilateral and multilateral negotiations with the Chinese government – so that U.S. businesses and workers have a more level playing field in world trade." In Thursday's White House press briefing, presidential assistant and Asian affairs director Jeff Bader said that whereas currency discussions usually comprise a quarter of the meeting time between President Obama and Chinese leaders, the issue dominated "most of the meeting" at the United Nations on Thursday between Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. "The president made no commitment to Premier Wen about this legislation," Bader told reporters, adding that the administration would not take a position on the bill. "I don’t recall that this specific bill was brought up, although there was discussion about the attitude of the Congress. And Premier Wen clearly is well aware of that." The House will vote on the China bill next week, though it is unclear whether the Senate will act next week or in a lame-duck session. One factor may be whether China allows its currency to appreciate between now and the lame-duck session. And this week, lawmakers will shine a light on a case that Russia doesn't want to be cast as a case of political persecution. The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, upon learning that lawyers of an imprisoned Russian entrepreneur would be in Washington, scheduled a briefing for Wednesday to discuss the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Khodorkovsky became the richest man in Russia as he led the oil giant Yukos after the fall of the Soviet Union. A vocal critic of then-President Vladimir Putin, he was imprisoned in 2005 on fraud charges. When he was eligible for parole, Russian prosecutors levied fresh embezzlement and money laundering charges against him that could net an additional 22 years behind bars. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), chairman of the Helsinki Commission, told The Hill that the briefing is intended to bring attention to the "unacceptable type of treatment he has received" -- and put other nations on notice against "using the criminal justice system for political ends." "If it goes unchallenged, it becomes the norm," Cardin said. Cardin co-sponsored a sense of the Senate resolution, now stuck in the Foreign Relations Committee, with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) in June 2009 that brands the Khodorkovsky case "a politically-motivated case of selective arrest and prosecution that serves as a test of the rule of law and independence of the judicial system of Russia." A sister resolution introduced by Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) similarly sits in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, co-sponsored by Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.). On June 21, Cardin and Wicker, both members of the Foreign Relations panel, engaged in a colloquy on the Senate floor to draw attention to the Khodorkovsky case. "I cannot speak for the leadership of the Senate as to why it hasn't been brought up," Wicker said of their 2009 resolution. The senator, who told The Hill that he's long been interested in Russia issues, said he is "very disappointed in recent years with the Putin regime and it seems clear to me that the international community recognizes this also." "They're inching back toward the dictatorship that they had under communism," he said. "Khodorkovsky's offense for which he is being imprisoned is having the temerity to speak out against the Russian regime and their serious backsliding on areas such as democracy, freedom of speech and the rule of law." The Kremlin certainly disagrees, and the congressional attention won't make Russia happy with relations between the federation and the U.S. at a sensitive point. Russia denies any political motivation in the case while making clear it doesn't want foreign interference in the matter. Putin vowed this month not to interfere with the latest trial while simultaneously accusing Khodorkovsky of having "blood on his hands." Cardin said Putin could step in to stop what the Helsinki Commission calls "legal hooliganism." "They can do something about it," he said. "We are asking Putin and others to take action in this case." From behind bars, Khodorkovsky continues to write about what he sees as the crumbling of democracy and the rule of law in Russia and has urged world leaders to re-examine relations with the country. Writing in the Observer last weekend, Khodorkovsky, who pointedly referred to himself as a "political prisoner," urged British Prime Minister David Cameron to put human rights first in efforts to restore relations with the Kremlin -- which have been sullied the past few years after the London murder of spy-turned-Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko -- and help Russians "who are searching for a way out of the darkness of totalitarianism into the light of freedom." Back in 2005, then-Sen. Obama, along with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), co-sponsored a sense of the Senate introduced by then-Sen. Biden that said Khodorkovsky did not received a fair trial, that the charges were politically motivated and that "the judiciary of Russia is an instrument of the Kremlin." After becoming president and declaring the reset button with Russia hit, Obama has spoken carefully on the Khodorkovsky case. "It does seem odd to me that these new charges, which appear to be a repackaging of the old charges, should be surfacing now," he said on a visit to Moscow in July 2009. Obama said it would be improper to interfere in Russia's legal process and praised President Dmitry Medvedev's "courageous initiative" to strengthen the rule of law. Wicker said he knows that the case remains among the State Department's many concerns. "The administration is well aware of the disturbing trend we've seen in Russia's cavalier attitude toward the rule of law," he said. Cardin said he's not sure what priority the case takes on the administration's agenda. There are definite foreign policy priorities on the table for Obama. He wants passage of the START arms reduction treaty, which made it out of Senate Foreign Relations this month. And cooperation is sought when it comes to reining in Iran. The administration praised Moscow on Thursday for complying with international sanctions and freezing a plan to sell Iran a series of long-range surface-to-air missiles. “This continues to demonstrate how Russia and the United States are cooperating closely on behalf of our mutual interests, and global security,” the White House said in a statement. However, the Kremlin quickly stressed that this doesn't end their military cooperation with the Islamic Republic. And many on Capitol Hill are intent on telling Russia it needs to cooperate more on democracy and human rights concerns. "I don't think that one commission briefing is going to completely reverse the injustice to Mr. Khodorkovsky, but the greater attention that can be put on this, the greater the pressure on Russia and others who need to reform their judicial systems," Helsinki Commission spokesman Neil Simon told The Hill.

The United States has a "moral obligation" to resettle tens of thousands of Iraqis who helped U.S. troops and civilian groups and who now face death threats from al Qaeda terrorists, members of Congress told Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. In letters to the two Cabinet members, the seven senators and 15 House members complained that the Obama administration is moving too slowly to grant visas to the doomed Iraqis and blamed bureaucrats for narrowly applying a law designed to relocate the Iraqis to the United States. They also warned Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Gates that time is running out, as the deadline for the end of U.S. combat operations looms at the end of August. The United States plans to draw down its 64,000 soldiers in Iraq to 50,000 and switch to a training and advisory role with the Iraqi army until a complete U.S. troop withdrawal by Dec. 31, 2011. "Resettlement to the United States could be the only safe option for thousands of our Iraqi employees," said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, Maryland Democrat and chairman of the congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, who organized the letters with Co-chairman Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, Florida Democrat. "The United States has a moral obligation to stand by those Iraqis who have risked their lives and the lives of their families to stand by us in Iraq for the past seven years, and doing so is also in our strategic self interest," the letters said. "Providing support for our Iraqi allies will advance U.S. national security interests around the world, particularly in Afghanistan, by sending a message that foreign nationals who support our work abroad can expect some measure of protection." Al Qaeda and other terrorists have threatened to kill the Iraqis who aided the United States, denouncing them as traitors and collaborators. The members of Congress called for swifter processing of the 15,000 visas authorized under the Special Immigrant Visa Program, which has approved visas for only 2,145 Iraqis. They complained that U.S. consular officers are misinterpreting the program by considering only Iraqis who worked directly for the U.S. Embassy or for U.S. contractors and subcontractors and denying visas to Iraqis who worked for U.S.-funded nongovernmental organizations. Besides Mr. Cardin and Mr. Hastings, the signatories of the letter included Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat and assistant majority leader; Sen. Richard G. Lugar, Indiana Republican and the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and Rep. Howard L. Berman, California Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. AFRICAN STAR The story of Africa is too often written in blood by tyrants who oppress their people while enriching themselves. However, one nation in southern Africa has been the exception for decades. Botswana is a peaceful, democratic nation, prosperous by African standards. One of Botswana's best leaders is coming to Washington to serve as a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Festus Mogae, president from 1998 to 2008, will study the way governments deal with AIDS, the deadly virus that ravaged the continent. "I look forward to interacting with knowledgeable people informed on issues in HIV/AIDS in Africa in the Wilson Center and around Washington," Mr. Mogae said last week after the Wilson Center announced his appointment. Mr. Mogae has been widely recognized for his efforts to combat AIDS and promote democracy. "We are delighted to welcome one of the world's most progressive leaders on the HIV/AIDS pandemic," said Steve McDonald, director of the Wilson Center's Africa program.

The New York Times, in a front-page story last week, reported that $1 trillion worth of minerals was buried in the mountains of Afghanistan. Geologists, Afghan officials and mining companies stand ready to launch a modern-day gold rush. Before everyone charges in, however, we need to recognize the risks and rewards inherent in these resources. This story ran soon after major news outlets noted that the U.S. military wants to fight corruption in Afghanistan’s government as a key to winning the war. In principle, these deposits mean resources for Afghanistan to build its economy as the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” But expanding Afghanistan’s economy from the current $12 billion to potentially $1 trillion will be a boon only if these resources are managed properly. Many other countries already have proved that resource revenue often leads to corruption and instability. For example, roughly 60 developing countries are rich in natural resources yet home to more than two-thirds of the world’s poorest people. Despite billions of dollars per year in oil, gas or mineral revenue, these countries rank among the worst when it comes to economic growth, authoritarian governance, poverty and political instability. The Afghan reports should spur immediate action in Congress to ensure transparency in how U.S. and international companies tap these resources. Transparency in the oil, gas and mining sectors has been endorsed for years by the G-8, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and regional development banks. It is clear to financial leaders that transparency is key to holding governments accountable for the needs of their citizens — and for greater energy security overall. If citizens and international organizations know how much money a country is paid for oil access, it is harder for its leader to claim the government would happily build roads, schools and hospitals but cannot afford them. Transparency will help those who want to follow the money to combat corruption, poverty and violence. In countries with rival ethnic groups, like Afghanistan, it also helps ensure that revenues are distributed equitably. Afghanistan has made a good first step by joining the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a voluntary international standard designed to promote transparency in the oil, gas and mining sectors. This group has made tremendous strides in changing the culture of secrecy that surrounds the extractive industries. But too many countries and companies remain outside this system. It is time to create an international standard for transparency in law. Secrecy of extractive payments carries real risks for citizens — and investors. We introduced the Energy Security Through Transparency Act to require most extractive industries — including oil, gas and mining companies — to disclose what they pay local governments for access to natural resources. This simple step, adding information to filings already required by the Securities and Exchange Commission, could help promote civil society and combat corruption in countries both blessed and cursed with natural resources. The extractive industries face unique material and reputational risks in the form of country-specific taxes and regulations. Challenges are compounded by the substantial capital companies need and the importance of natural resource access to the national security and strategic objectives of the United States and other major energy and mineral consumers. Creating a reporting requirement with the SEC can capture a larger portion of the international extractive corporations than any other single mechanism — thereby setting a global standard for transparency and promoting a level playing field. Our bill could help in following the money trail, making it harder to hide corruption and easier to bring the reforms needed to ensure that the blessing of natural resources does not turn into a curse. Afghanistan is at a crossroads. If we want to leave Afghanistan with a viable economy and a stable government, we have to help the nation get this right. Our bill could be the linchpin in a far larger U.S. and international effort, at all levels of government, to promote transparency and open the books in Afghanistan. The newfound resources would then lead to a new era of prosperity — and not be squandered through corruption. Afghanistan’s future — and the success of U.S. and NATO men and women serving in Afghanistan — are at stake. Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.