At last, we have a foreign secretary who’s not shy to make a stand

It is hardly a profound observation to say that the government has not functioned as well as it might have done for the past few months. Yet there is one important exception to the general picture of confused and counterproductive activity. Britain, for the first time in years, is developing a logical and — to use the words of Robin Cook — an ethical foreign policy.

In the Commons this week, the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, listed the first 49 individuals to fall foul of Britain’s ‘Magnitsky law’ — a provision to freeze the assets of, and impose travel bans on, foreign citizens who have been implicated in human rights abuses. It is popularly named after a similar law passed by Barack Obama in 2012 to target Russian officials involved in the prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax official who died in prison after daring to investigate corrupt public figures.

Among those named by Raab is Ahmed Hassan Mohammed Al Asiri, deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services, which has been held responsible for the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey two years ago. There are two senior Burmese generals linked to the suppression of the Rohingya Muslims; a pair of North Korean officials who run a network of secret prisons; and 25 Russian officials, including Moscow’s chief prosecutor, Alexander Bastrykin. For once, the government cannot be criticised for turning a blind eye to countries where we have an overriding economic interest: the inclusion of Saudi officials shows that our Magnitsky law will be used as much against countries which are generally considered friendly as against hostile regimes.

When you consider the world’s numerous rogues and abusers of power, Raab’s naming of this group is a small token.