AJC Director Harris: Jackson-Vanik Amendment is a relic of the Cold War

David Harris is the executive director of one of United States’ oldest Jewish advocacy groups, American Jewish Committee (AJC). Back in the 1980s, he was one of the key advocates for Soviet Jews and was even detained and expelled by Soviet authorities. Harris happened to be in Moscow this week, heading a delegation which met with Russian officials and public figures including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, around the time when the spy swap marked a new step in the “reset” of Russian-American relations. Andrei Zolotov, Jr., the chief editor of RussiaProfile.org, spoke to Harris about the political meaning of the intelligence agents’ exchange, as well as about the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which had once been lobbied by the Jewish organization and which denies most favored nation status to countries that restrict emigration. Today, emigration is a “non-issue” for Russia. Harris said the Jackson-Vanik is a relic of the Cold War, but it is “no longer in our hands as it perhaps once was.” In the meantime, AJC discusses with officials here Russian-US relations, Iran’s nuclear capabilities, the Middle East settlement and meets with the Russian Jewish community, whose revival Harris deems to be a “miracle.”