Russia promises ‘harsh’ response over progress of Sergei Magnitsky bill

The Guardian

Miriam Elder in Moscow. Wednesday 27 June 2012

Reprisals threatened over Senate committee’s approval of law designed to close borders to officials linked to death of lawyer

Russia has condemned a US Senate committee’s approval of a bill that would ban officials accused of human rights abuses from entering the United States.

On Tuesday, the Senate’s foreign relations committee unanimously passed a bill named after Sergei Magnitsky, a young lawyer who died in jail in 2009 after uncovering an alleged corruption scheme involving Russian tax officials and police. His arrest and subsequent death are widely seen as symbolising the absence of rule of law inside Russia.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, called the committee’s decision “counterproductive”. Russia’s response would be “harsh” and “not necessarily symmetrical”, he told state television on Wednesday.

The bill, put forward by Senator Benjamin Cardin, would ban officials allegedly involved in Magnitsky’s death from entering the US, and impose restrictions on their financial activities inside the country.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, warned at the G8 summit in Mexico earlier this month that Russia would ban US officials from entering Russia if the Magnitsky bill was passed.

The US state department has already quietly banned 60 officials linked to the Magnitsky case – a move seen as an attempt to avoid the public row that would erupt from the adoption of the Senate bill.

Reacting to news of the Senate’s move, Vyacheslav Nikonov, a Duma deputy, suggested compiling a “Guantánamo list” or “Viktor Bout list” to punish US officials involved in running the detention centre or in the jailing of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in the US.

“We need to create conditions so that the law will not be adopted,” Nikonov told the RIA-Novosti news agency. “And if they adopt it, Russia will have no choice but to give a symmetrical answer.”

Yet he acknowledged that a Russian travel ban would be unlikely to have much effect; whereas Russian citizens and officials travel to and own property in the US, the reverse is rarely true.

“I haven’t heard that any of them have bank accounts inside Russia and don’t think that many plan to move here – in other words, a symmetrical answer might not bring a symmetrical result,” he said.

The Obama administration made “resetting” relations with Russia a top foreign policy priority, but that has been tested recently by a host of disagreements, from Russia’s refusal to halt its support of the Assad regime in Syria to official harassment of Michael McFaul, the US ambassador to Moscow.

A clutch of US senators, including John McCain, have been urging the administration to adopt the Magnitsky bill as it pushes for the cancellation of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, a piece of legislation from the Soviet era that restricted US trade relations with the USSR because of concerns over human rights. McFaul and other administration officials have signalled they do not wish to countenance new legislation on the issue.

Magnitsky died in 2009 after being denied medical treatment in a Russian pre-trial detention centre. The official cause of death was listed as heart failure, but the Kremlin’s human rights council later said it was likely that he had been beaten to death. Magnitsky, then 37, was arrested after uncovering a scheme by which a group of tax and police officials allegedly worked together to defraud the state of around £150m in taxes. He had been hired by the investment house Hermitage Capital, run by London-based William Browder.

His death sparked an international outcry. Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, now prime minister, denounced his death. Yet more than three years later, no one has been tried or jailed for involvement in his death, while several of the officials that Browder alleges ordered his arrest have been promoted. займы на карту без отказа займ на карту без отказов круглосуточно https://zp-pdl.com/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php zp-pdl.com займ онлайн