U.S. Asked to Blacklist 305 Yukos Attackers by Russian Activists

Bloomberg

Russian human-rights activists and opposition politicians have called on the U.S. Senate to blacklist 305 officials in Russia involved in the prosecution of Yukos Oil Co. and its owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

In a letter sent to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, the activists asked them to include the officials in legislation targeting human rights abusers in Russia, according to a copy of the petition posted on Khodorkovsky’s website.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration in July implemented a visa ban on a number of Russian officials after a similar request to punish human rights abusers. Russia warned it would retaliate, threatening to undermine the “reset” in relations between the two countries.

“We believe it’s realistic because the Republicans are very committed” to action on human rights, Vladimir Ryzkhov, a leader of the Parnas opposition party, said of the sanctions over the Yukos case. “We hope that in the framework of compromise on budget cuts and taxes, the Obama administration will agree to this step.”

Fourteen senators in May submitted a bipartisan bill that would impose a visa ban and asset freeze on 60 Russian officials implicated in the death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow jail, as well as others guilty of human rights violations.
Human Rights Court

Khodorkovsky, 48, whose fortune was once estimated at $15 billion by Forbes magazine, was convicted of fraud and tax evasion in 2005 and oil embezzlement in December 2010, charges he says were revenge for his financing of opposition parties. The tycoon, who was arrested in 2003, faces a total of 13 years in prison.

Yukos, once Russia’s biggest oil exporter, was declared bankrupt in 2006, facing $30 billion of tax claims, and sold off in pieces. State-owned OAO Rosneft controls most of its former oil production and refining assets.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, is due to rule tomorrow on a lawsuit filed by former management of Yukos seeking about $100 billion in compensation for what they say were illegal tax probes that led to the company’s liquidation. срочный займ на карту онлайн payday loan https://zp-pdl.com www.zp-pdl.com hairy girl