Russians Linked to Jail Death Are Barred From U.S.

The New York Times. By Andrew E. Kramer

MOSCOW — The Obama administration has disclosed one of its sharpest policy responses to Russian human rights abuses, telling American lawmakers that dozens of Russian officials have been quietly barred from the United States over their involvement in the detention and death two years ago of a Russian lawyer fighting an enormous fraud and corruption case.

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Hermitage Capital Management, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sergei Magnitsky in 2006.

The restrictions, put in place without official notification to the Russians, nevertheless represent a significant act of American pressure over the rights abuses and the impunity in the judicial system in Russia. At the same time, the disclosure appeared calibrated to protect hard-won improvements in the “reset” of relations between the two countries.

A State Department memo laid out the visa ban, which was first reported by The Washington Post. The document was sent last week to senators who have been pushing for far more stringent measures. Their provisions would not only deny American entry to Russian officials linked to the case of the lawyer, Sergei L. Magnitsky, but also freeze their American assets. At least 19 senators are sponsoring the bill, including Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona.

The measure would apply as well to officials implicated in the shooting deaths of Natalia Estemirova, a human rights worker killed in the North Caucasus in 2009, and Anna Politkovskaya, a crusading journalist killed at the entry to her Moscow apartment in 2006.

The State Department’s memo argued against such sweeping measures, saying they might undermine Mr. Obama’s policy of reset with Moscow and that the Russians had threatened retaliation that could harm American interests around the world.

The Senate measure would “have foreign policy implications that could hurt our international sanctions efforts on countries like Iran, North Korea and Libya, and jeopardize other areas of cooperation including transit to Afghanistan,” the memo said.

Russian official reaction was muted on Tuesday.

Mikhail Fedotov, the head of President Dmitri A. Medvedev’s human rights council, said the prosecution of Mr. Magnitsky’s killers should be left to the Russian government. “We understand the noble goals,” he said, according to Interfax. “But one also needs to see possible unpleasant consequences.”

While accounts of human rights abuses are rife in Russia, Mr. Magnitsky’s case stood out because of the brazenness of the abuse, the scale of the venality and because this victim, unlike most, had powerful friends outside of Russia. European countries have been considering visa bans to officials linked to the case.

Mr. Magnitsky had testified in court that senior police officials had stolen documents from the hedge fund he worked for, Hermitage Capital, and used them in an elaborate fraud to take possession of $230 million in tax refunds. Later, the same police officers he had accused arrested him and ordered him held in dank cells, where for 11 months he was repeatedly denied medical care as his health faltered.

He died in November 2009, at 37. Earlier this month, Russia’s top investigative commission said he died of heart disease and hepatitis, and that he would have survived with medical care. However, a nearly simultaneous Russian presidential advisory report said he may have died because of a beating.

Over time, some prison officials were dismissed and got jobs elsewhere. And while the authorities have also occasionally raised the prospect of a more thorough investigation, they have ignored extensive evidence linking senior police officials to Mr. Magnitsky’s death. Some of those involved even received medals.

In its memo the State Department said the visa restrictions cover Russian officials whose names were provided by Hermitage Capital, which has lobbied the United States and European nations for sanctions.

An administration official said all the names were vetted, and that American diplomats later added more, according to a senior American official.

William Browder, the chief executive of Hermitage Capital, said he welcomed the news of the visa ban but said he would continue advocating for the Senate to pass the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act.

“Are we really resetting relations with this country if they are threatening to halt international cooperation in order to allow their torturers and murders to travel to America?” Mr. Browder said in a telephone interview from London.

A Senate staff member familiar with the draft legislation said discussions have been under way in Congress about a deal at the nexus of trade, human rights and diplomacy with the Russians.

Under this arrangement, Congress would agree to the administration’s request to abrogate the Jackson-Vanik admendment, an earlier human rights law intended to address first the Soviet Union and then Russia, in exchange for Mr. Obama’s signature on the Magnitsky act.

The Jackson-Vanik amendment imposed trade sanctions on countries restricting emigration, and was intended in part to ease the exit of Soviet Jews to Israel. It remains on the books for Russia though the country abolished exit restrictions two decades ago.

The law also violates World Trade Organization rules, and will need to be repealed if Russia becomes a member, something the United States government has advocated for years, to boost exports to Russia by companies like Procter & Gamble and Caterpillar.

The Senate aide, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the administration’s acknowledgment of the visa ban list might not be sufficient to persuade the Senate to repeal Jackson-Vanik without passing the Magnitsky law. The list, he said, failed to expressly prohibit entry into the United States of suspected rights abusers in other Russian cases, he said, and fell short of the more punishing measure of seizing assets.

“Will this be enough to get Jackson-Vanik?” the aide said. “I don’t think so. This is a welcome development. But what about Natalia Estemirova? What about other gross human rights abuses in Russia?”

A version of this article appeared in print on July 27, 2011, on page A7 of the New York edition with the headline: Russians Tied To Jail Death Are Barred From the U.S… hairy women hairy woman https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php займ на карту без отказов круглосуточно