The European Parliament Considers Sanctions against Russia for Khodorkovsky
Moskovsky Komsomolets
The idea of sanctions was suggested by a group of parliamentarians headed by Kristina Ojuland of Estonia. “The European Union openly supported Belarussian opposition. Why not the democratic opposition in Russia as well?” said Heidi Hautala of Finland, chair-in-office of the European Parliament’s subcommittee on human rights. “We cannot permit double standards.” President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek called Khodorkovsky’s verdict a “symbol of systemic problems with supremacy of the law, legal nihilism, and human rights in Russia.”
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Russian MPs chide EU officials for urging sanctions over Yukos verdict
Russian parliament members have criticized European Parliament representatives for proposing visa sanctions against Russian officials involved in the 30 December 2010 sentencing, in a second trial, of former Yukos oil company head Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and his business associate Platon Lebedev. Their reaction was reported by Russian media on 11 January.
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Russian Officials Associated with Khodorkovsky’s verdict face Prospect of Sanctions
The latest verdict to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev became one of the central items on the agenda of the first meeting of the EU Subcommittee on Human Rights. In fact, all key statements had been made throughout the West even before the meeting of the structure. President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek called the verdict a “symbol of systematic problems of the judiciary, legal nihilism, and human rights abuses in Russia.” Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, called it a “disappointment and a cause for concern.”
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Can’t Afford a Picasso? How About a Piece of One?
Art aficionados have long held themselves to be in a more elite class than Wall Street speculators.
Now, their worlds are colliding as a new crop of financial firms move to sell shares in pools of paintings — and some fear the results may resemble the chaotic splashed canvases of Jackson Pollock.
The two make for an odd combination. While many investors favor transparency and asset gathering, art dealers generally like secrecy and exclusive holdings.
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Hermitage Fund’s William Browder
The Hermitage Fund founder and former Putin ally on how exposing corruption in Russia upended his business and changed his worldview.
My grandfather was the general secretary of the American Communist Party. And as I was finishing business school in 1989, I had a romantic attraction to the Soviet Union as it was opening for business. As an investment banker in 1992, I went to the Russian town of Murmansk to advise the managers of a state-owned fleet of 100 ships. Each ship cost $20 million, but the managers were being offered the chance to buy 51 percent of the entire fleet for $2.5 million. I realized that to make money in Russia, you had to invest directly in assets that were being privatized. In 1996, I moved to Moscow and set up the Hermitage Fund, which became the largest foreign investment fund in the country.
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Time to get tough on the Kremlin crooks and bullies
The jailing of Boris Nemtsov is a dark departure from Russia’s already bleak status quo.
When you next meet Boris Nemtsov, will you be able to look him in the eye and say that you did everything you could while he was in jail? Did you urge your ambassadors to visit him in prison? Did your local Russian ambassador find himself bombarded with public and private protests? Did your politicians write letters to the newspapers, give speeches or go to demonstrations? Did your legislators hold hearings about freedom of assembly in Russia? Did you raise Russia’s continued membership of the Council of Europe?
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The End of the Medvedev Revolution?
Since a Russian judge sentenced former Yukos oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, to thirteen and a half years in prison on December 30, many commentators have viewed the outcome—after a 22-month trial that openly flouted judicial standards—as a major setback for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. After all, a little more than a year ago, Medvedev gained international attention for vowing to institute the rule of law in Russia and make foreign investment in Russia a top priority, and there had been growing speculation that he might begin to take on the entrenched interests of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. For the moment, those hopes seem dashed. In the long run, however, the case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev may hurt Putin more than Medvedev as the two rivals position themselves for the 2012 presidential contest.
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The World from The Hill: Five key foreign policy issues to watch in the new year
Unresolved issues and new challenges face President Obama on the foreign policy front in 2011, including a new Republican House with lawmakers raring to confront what they see as failing policies.
Republicans can’t do much to change Obama’s direction on foreign policy, but they do hold the purse strings to fund the administration’s operations. Fresh off their midterm rout of Democrats, Republicans have expressed their intentions to use that capability.
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On Human Rights in the World and the EU’s Policy on the Matter
Human rights serve as the guiding principle in the European Union’s (EU’s) external action. Hardly are there other state-actors in the world that would place such an emphasis on the spread and protection of human rights abroad.
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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
