U.S. businesses should push for reform in Russia
With the NBA lockout continuing indefinitely, at least Chicago Bulls’ owner Jerry Reinsdorf has the White Sox to keep him busy.
New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov? He had a second job too: running for prime minister of Russia.
That is until last month. The nominal head of a pro-business party there, Prokhorov abruptly resigned his position, claiming the current regime — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his cronies — had orchestrated a “hostile takeover” of his party. Putin, notorious for crushing any threats, perceived or real, to his absolute hold on power over the last decade, announced a few days later he would return to Russia’s top post (as if he left) next year.
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Russian lawyer denied prison medical leave dies
A former Yukos oil executive whose struggle to win medical treatment for Aids and cancer came to symbolise the harshness of the Russian prison system, has died.
Vasily Aleksanyan, a Harvard-educated lawyer who headed Yukos’s legal department and was briefly vice-president of the firm, was imprisoned in April 2006 as part of the sweep against the oil company.
He was diagnosed with HIV shortly after his arrest, and later with tuberculosis and cancer of the liver, as well as severely limited vision.
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Visa ban on officials implicated in Russian lawyer’s death
It has been reported that the Home Office has imposed visa sanctions against those implicated in the death of Sergei Magnitsky.
In July 2011, pro bono volunteers, brokered by the Law Society’s International Action Team, provided advice on sanctions to the campaign for justice for Sergei Magnitsky.
The sanctions will prevent those involved from visiting the UK. Similar bans are proposed or in force in EU and US (where the draft legislation on economic sanctions has also been proposed supported by high-profile politicians like John McCain).
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Putin’s Assassination State
All states have their enemies. Just a few days ago, the United States succeeded in taking out Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior recruiter, propagandist and organizer for al-Qaeda, with a drone attack in Yemen. Earlier this year, U.S. forces flew into Pakistan to seek and destroy Osama bin Laden.
And this week, a leaked document shows that Vladimir Putin has been arranging for his own enemies to be assassinated. As Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports:
The Russian secret service authorised the “elimination” of individuals living overseas who were judged to be enemies of the state and ordered the creation of special units to conduct such operations, according to a document passed to The Daily Telegraph.
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Investigator in Magnitsky case arrested for taking bribe
An investigator in the case of campaigning lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has been arrested for demanding a $3 million bribe to drop charges against suspected smugglers in an unrelated case.
Maj. Nelly Dmitriyeva accepted part of the pay-off through a third party in August, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor-General’s Office told reporters on Wednesday.
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Film “Justice for Sergei” shown in the Dutch Parliament
Today, the documentary film “Justice for Sergei” was shown in the Dutch Parliament. The film is about Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered widespread corruption in the Russian government, was imprisoned, and died in custody in 2009 in suspicious circumstances.
The death of Magnitsky has led to tensions in diplomatic relations between Russia, the United States and Europe. This case has since been raised and discussed in the Dutch Parliament and the European Parliament.
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Ambassador Johnson On Rule Of Law: Legislative Transparency, Independence Of The Judiciary, Right To A Fair Trial
The rule of law underpins all of our human dimension commitments. Today, we will focus on certain elements of rule of law—legislative transparency, independence of the judiciary and the right to a fair trial. But, I think it is useful to pause for a moment to consider what we mean when we talk about rule of law. In a speech a few years ago while acknowledging the risks of “formulating something too insufficient for the great purpose behind the phrase,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, set out a working definition of the rule of law. According to Justice Kennedy, there are three main components:
First: “The law is superior to, and thus binds, the government and all its officials.”
Second: “The law must respect and preserve the dignity, equality, and human rights of all persons. To those ends, the law must establish and safeguard the constitutional structures necessary to build a free society in which all citizens have a meaningful voice in shaping and enacting the rules that govern them.”
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Britain ‘Blacklists’ Magnitsky Officials
Britain has secretly blacklisted at least 60 Russian officials implicated in the 2009 prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, a British media report said Sunday.
The move would replicate a measure taken by the United States in July that prompted the Russian Foreign Ministry to draw up a blacklist of U.S. officials in retaliation.
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Browder Targets France, Germany After U.K ‘Russian Visa Ban’
Hermitage Capital Management Ltd. founder William Browder is lobbying Germany and France after the U.K. reportedly followed a U.S. ban on Russian officials over the death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Browder, whose London-based fund was once the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia, said he believes the U.K. has barred 60 Russian officials linked to Magnitsky’s death in a Moscow prison in 2009.
The British weekly, the Observer, reported yesterday that the U.K. had secretly imposed the visa ban, citing former Europe Minister Christopher Bryant as saying he was informed of the measure by Immigration Minister Damian Green. The Home Office declined to comment on individual cases, adding in an e-mailed statement: “We can refuse a visa when the individual’s character, conduct or associations makes entry to the U.K. undesirable.”
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To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below
- Sergei Magnitsky
- Why was Sergei Magnitsky arrested?
- Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and death in prison
- President’s investigation sabotaged and going nowhere
- The corrupt officers attempt to arrest 8 lawyers
- Past crimes committed by the same corrupt officers
- Petitions requesting a real investigation into Magnitsky's death
- Worldwide reaction, calls to punish those responsible for corruption and murder
- Complaints against Lt.Col. Kuznetsov
- Complaints against Major Karpov
- Cover up
- Press about Magnitsky
- Bloggers about Magnitsky
- Corrupt officers:
- Sign petition
- Citizen investigator
- Join Justice for Magnitsky group on Facebook
- Contact us
- Sergei Magnitsky
