U.S. expects principles of law-governed state will triumph in Khodorkovsky case – diplomat
Interfax
The United States would want principles of a law-governed state proclaimed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to be applied in the case of former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, U.S. ambassador to Russia John Byerle has said.
“We noticed what Medvedev said about the importance of a law-governed state, the importance of the independence of the judicial system in Russia. We wish that these principles would be manifested during the trial,” he said on Ekho Moskvy radio.
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Security services, tax fraud and death of a lawyer
Financial Times
3 Nov 2010: The case of Sergei Magnitsky – a lawyer who died in prison after testifying against police for allegedly participating in Russia’s largest tax fraud using companies belonging his to clients that they had in effect confiscated – focuses on the interior ministry. But according to one retired policeman with knowledge of the case, the police “were simply the arms and hands” of a much more shadowy organisation: the federal security service (FSB), successor to the Soviet KGB.
Based in the Lubyanka, the imposing Moscow building that once housed its predecessors, the FSB’s Directorate K has the task of ferreting out economic and financial crime. But it has also been at the centre of several scandals that appear to show it has a direct role in some of the worst frauds in modern Russian history.
Hermitage Capital Management, an investment fund run by the US-born Bill Browder, has obtained only one document that shows direct FSB involvement in the Magnitsky case. In May 2007, Viktor Voronin, head of Directorate K, issued a finding that companies belonging to Hermitage had underpaid taxes. Based on this document, police raided the fund’s offices, and that of the law firm it was using, where Magnitsky worked. It confiscated seals and stamps of three companies that had recently paid $230m in capital gains taxes, according to Hermitage. These items were then used to obtain a fraudulent tax rebate; the companies were re-registered under new owners, which then applied for the a refund of the $230m, which was granted almost immediately through friendly courts.
The new owner of the companies was eventually convicted of the tax fraud, but Hermitage chief executive Bill Browder says he was a “fall guy” and the real perpetrators got away.
In autumn 2008, Magnitsky testified to the police that the fraud had taken place using items seized in the police raid, and alleging police involvement in the crime. The man who had led the raid a year earlier, Lt Col Artyom Kuznetsov, was part of a team that arrested him on tax evasion charges, according to a police order obtained by Hermitage.
During pre-trial detention, Magnitsky testified that he was under pressure from investigators working with Lt Col Kuznetsov to retract his testimony. “The same operative Kuznetsov also provided his operative investigative support on the case . . . on the subject of the theft of the said companies [which were used in the tax fraud]. Kuznetsov also performed operative support on the criminal case under which I was involved as an accused person, and I believe that the criminal persecution against me is the revenge by the said person to punish me for my acts.” Magnitsky gave this testimony on October 13 2009, a month before his death. Mr Kuznetsov did not respond to requests for comment from the FT.
Magnitsky lasted 11 months in prison. He was in good health before his arrest but developed a stomach complaint in detention, for which he was denied medical treatment. The Moscow public oversight commission, created last year by President Dmitry Medvedev to oversee human rights in jails, claimed in a report in December that the denial of medical care was intended to coerce Magnitsky to change his testimony against interior ministry officials.
The most harrowing episodes of the commission report cover the last hours of Magnitsky’s life, when he was transferred to the Sailor’s Rest prison from the notorious Butyrka jail, supposedly for urgent medical treatment. After telling staff that someone was trying to murder him, provoking a decision that he was suffering from a “psychotic episode”, he was given an injection, placed in a straitjacket and put in an isolation ward, where he died just over an hour later. онлайн займы payday loan zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/apply-for-payday-loan-online.php займ на карту
Russia: Bribery on the beat
Financial Times
3 Nov 2010: Until Ekaterina Mikheeva saw her husband Fedor led away in chains to an Arctic prison camp, she did not think the Russian criminal justice system could sink so low.
Mr Mikheev had taken a risk that few others dared take, and it cost him 11 years of freedom: he had pressed charges against a group of high-ranking policemen, claiming they had kidnapped him in 2006.
The case is one of several that illustrate the fearsome reach of Russia’s security services. Once feared for their efficient repression of ideological dissidents, their reputation now inspires just as much dread as before, for what Russians call reiderstvo, or raiding. Corrupt police nowadays often work hand in glove with organised crime gangs, targeting vulnerable businessmen with investigations and arrests as a way to shake them down for money or take over their assets.
Events in Moscow this week dramatically demonstrated the extent to which law enforcement has been politicised. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former billionaire and arch-enemy of the Kremlin who was jailed in 2003, gave a final plea before being sentenced in a second trial, decrying “police lawlessness” and “raiders in epaulettes”. He added: “When people collide with the system they have no rights at all.”
Police also raided the bank belonging to Alexander Lebedev, owner of London-based newspapers The Independent and the Evening Standard, who is a noted critic of the government. The reasons for the raid were not immediately clear.
“The police are nothing more than a big gang, a separate corporation,” says Ms Mikheeva, a Moscow travel agent and mother of two who struggles to make ends meet with her husband in prison. “They used to enforce an ideology, now they are just out to make money – and no one can get in their way.”
Russians seem to agree they are increasingly hostage to their law enforcement agencies, whose powers have grown exponentially in the last decade under the rule of Vladimir Putin, former president and now prime minister, who himself was a KGB spy. A June poll by the Levada Center, a research organisation, asked: “Do you feel protected against arbitrary actions by the police, tax inspectors, courts, and other government structures?” In response, 43 per cent said “not really” and 29 per cent said “definitely not”.
But while President Dmitry Medvedev fired 15 police generals this year and announced a wholesale reform of the police by 2012, the limits of the Kremlin’s ability, or desire, to rein in the security services have nonetheless been graphically demonstrated. Authorities have failed to tackle dramatic miscarriages of justice similar to Mr Mikheev’s, in spite of numerous legal appeals.
In 2008 Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer, testified against police for allegedly participating in a tax fraud worth $230m, the largest ever recorded in Russia, using companies belonging to clients of his that they had in effect confiscated. Soon after this testimony he was accused of tax evasion, imprisoned without trial for 11 months and died in custody a year ago as a result of medical complications. The Moscow Helsinki Commission, the influential Russian human rights group, said the death was tantamount to torture and murder by the police.
An investigation ordered by Mr Medvedev 11 months ago into the death of Magnitsky has gone nowhere; no arrests have been made. Oleg Silchenko, the interior ministry officer who signed the orders detaining Magnitsky without trial for nearly a year until his death, was even promoted in July to lieutenant colonel.
Some of the circumstances surrounding the $230m tax fraud make Magnitsky’s allegations of police corruption striking. Stamps and documents used in the tax fraud had been confiscated during a raid in June 2007 on the offices of his law firm and on those of a client, Hermitage Capital Management, an investment fund run by the US-born Bill Browder, who is now London-based. The items were in the possession of the police at the time the fraud was committed that December, using those documents.
The Moscow City Bar Association said in July that Magnitsky’s death represented the systematic persecution of lawyers in Russia, adding that “the perpetrators of the theft of budget funds have remained unpunished, while the lawyers who have attempted to report them have been subjected to criminal prosecution”.
But the officials involved seem to be beyond the power of the justice system. One of the officers involved in securing Magnitsky’s arrest in 2008, Lt Col Artyom Kuznetsov, was also accused by Mr Mikheev of kidnapping him and arresting him on false charges in 2006. Col Kuznetsov declined numerous requests for comment from the Financial Times.
Both cases focus attention on a group of interior ministry operatives who seemingly have wide powers of arrest. Both also ended in a similar way – with the policemen free and the men who accused them of abusing their office behind bars.
The odyssey of Mr Mikheev, formerly deputy general director of a midsized fertiliser company, began in August 2006, when he was met at his workplace by Col Kuznetsov, who brought him to police headquarters for questioning.
The company, called UkrAgroKhimPromHolding, had taken out a $100m loan from the state-controlled VTB, Russia’s second largest bank. VTB initiated a complaint with police in July, alleging that the loan had been used fraudulently, though Mr Mikheev and Alexander Bessonov, his boss and head of the company, insist they can prove the funds were used for their stated purpose of buying equipment.
Mr Mikheev testified to police later that the case against them was an attempt by VTB employees to extort a cut of the loan for themselves. Mr Bessonov claimed to investigators that he had been threatened by VTB’s chief of security with “destruction” if he did not pay a bribe of at least $10m to VTB employees in return for the loan. The security chief denied under police interrogation in June 2007 that he had made any such threat.
Mr Mikheev was kept in police custody for two days and was not charged with any crime. But the strange part of the story comes after his release – he claims he was escorted out of police headquarters and forced into a car where two men drove him to a country house where he was held for 11 days. He says his captors were described by his interrogator, Capt Anton Golyshev, as “non-staff” police agents, though in fact they were two convicted criminals, Viktor Markelov and Sergei Orlov.
According to a transcript seen by the FT of a cross-examination by internal affairs investigators following Mr Mikheev’s complaint, Capt Golyshev denied Mr Mikheev had been kidnapped, asserting rather that he had requested “temporary accommodation” for his own safety. In captivity Mr Mikheev claimed his life was threatened if he did not disclose Mr Bessonov’s whereabouts, according to his own later testimony to police. “I believe that the purpose of my kidnapping was to understand how rich was my boss and where he kept money,” he told investigators in September 2006. He also testified that while in captivity Mr Orlov informed him that he had been kidnapped on the orders of VTB employees in order to extort $20m from Mr Bessonov.
VTB rejected requests to contact its security chief, who apparently still works for the company, saying: “VTB has never been a participant in any legal process dealing with the kidnapping of Mr Mikheev. Thus we cannot comment on such questions.” Sergei Sokolov, editor of the opposition-oriented Novaya Gazeta, says he does not believe VTB as an organisation was involved in the conflict with Mr Mikheev, but “it was probably just some mid-level employees from the security department”.
Mr Mikheev was eventually freed by a police Swat team after his wife Ekaterina, despite threats to her life, finally informed police. He decided to press charges against the policemen, including Capt Golyshev and Col Kuznetsov, whom he alleged had organised his kidnapping. But he was arrested again a few days later and charged with fraudulent use of the $100m VTB loan.
According to Mrs Mikheeva, the couple were pressed by Col Kuznetsov to withdraw their testimony against him and two other investigators accused of taking part in the kidnapping, in exchange for the charges against Mr Mikheev being dropped. “They said, we will do you a favour if you do us a favour,” she says. Neither Col Kuznetsov nor the interior ministry responded to questions from the FT seeking to clarify his role.
Despite that fact that neither Mr Mikheev nor his wife withdrew their testimony against the group of officers, the case against the latter was dropped in November 2006 and two prosecutors who had signed the order to investigate the Mikheev kidnapping received reprimands. “They just drowned it,” says one former policeman with knowledge of the case. “They created obstacles. No one ever said anything to us directly, but it was clear that if we pressed ahead with this, our careers would suffer.”
Ultimately Mr Orlov, and a partner, Viktor Markelov, were arrested for the kidnapping of Mr Mikheev and spent six months in jail before being freed. But the policemen who detained Mr Mikheev and allegedly forced him into Mr Orlov’s car were freed. Capt Golyshev received a simple reprimand “for violations of the law in the course of the investigation”, according to a letter from the prosecutor’s office in September 2006, though it was not clear from the letter what the actions referred to were. Col Kuznetsov received no punishment.
Mr Mikheev was sentenced to 11 years in a penal colony, where he is to this day.
Ayear later, Col Kuznetsov led the police raid on the offices of Hermitage Capital in which the materials used to create what may be the largest tax fraud in Russia’s history were seized.
After Hermitage filed a complaint over the fraud, the lawyer Magnitsky testified that police officers including Col Kuznetsov were involved. Col Kuznetsov and three subordinates were then included on the team who investigated Magnitsky for tax evasion, according to a police directive from November 2008. Magnitsky was jailed pending trial, where he died.
Col Kuznetsov has asked police to launch a criminal defamation investigation against Hermitage’s Mr Browder and Jamison Firestone, Magnitsky’s former boss, whom he claims have falsely accused him of being involved in Magnitsky’s death.
Mrs Mikheeva acknowledges the risks of going public with the story of her husband, but says she seeks justice: “My husband was a hostage in an extremely dirty game. We’re not just talking about theft – we’re talking about destroyed lives.”
Fund manager at the centre of the saga
Bill Browder (left), head of the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund, is central to the saga of police corruption that has engulfed Russia’s interior ministry. American-born, he has adopted British citizenship and is today based in London following his expulsion from Russia in 2005.
Hermitage, which he created in 1996, used to be the largest portfolio investor in the country and pioneered the trading of Russian shares by western companies. Its legal problems began with Mr Browder’s expulsion and culminated in the arrest of its lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, in 2008 followed by his death in 2009. It is thought the problems stemmed from offence caused to vested interests by Mr Browder’s criticism of management practices at companies such as Gazprom, the gas monopoly, in which Hermitage had invested heavily. займ на карту займы на карту без отказа https://zp-pdl.com/best-payday-loans.php https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php займ на карту онлайн
Russia’s Corruption Rating Barely Changed
The St. Petersburg Times
29 October 2010 – Despite President Dmitry Medvedev’s efforts to fight corruption, the country remains firmly rooted in the bottom league of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, which was released Tuesday.
Russia made it only to 154th place on the 178-country survey, scoring evenly with nine other countries ranging from Cambodia to Tajikistan that scored 2.1 points from a possible 10.
The result was the worst among the Group of 20 nations, with the next-worst performing member Indonesia in 110th place, making Russia the most corrupt major economy.
Among post-Soviet countries, only Kyrgyzstan (164th), Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (both at 172nd) fared worse, while the Baltic countries were in the lead.
The index, based on surveys of businesspeople and governance experts, is published annually by the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog and is among the world’s most-quoted surveys on corruption.
Russia’s performance was only slightly worse than the 2.2 points it scored in 2009. The resulting eight-spot drop in the overall rankings, from last year’s 146th, was mainly because so many countries scored similarly, Transparency said.
“There are no significant changes. Regarding corruption, everything remains just as bad as it was,” the organization’s Moscow office said in an e-mailed press release.
Transparency’s country representative, Yelena Panfilova, said the Kremlin’s anti-corruption efforts continued to impress on paper but rang hollow in practice. “Yes, corrupt officials are exposed and cases investigated, but the real number of sentences has not risen,” she said in the statement.
Panfilova, who is also a member of Medvedev’s Human Rights Council, said two high-profile corruption cases should show in the near future whether the country was able break through what she called “a wall of untouchables.”
She said she hoped that authorities would show resolve to investigate both the Daimler and Magnitsky cases without protecting high-level officials who may have been involved.
German carmaker Daimler admitted in April to paying more than $6.4 million in kickbacks to state-connected firms and officials. Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for the Hermitage Capital fund, died in detention last year after being accused of tax evasion – charges that his supporters say were politically motivated.
Mikhail Fedotov, the newly appointed head of the presidential human rights council, told The St. Petersburg Times that the fight against corruption would continue in full force, but that quick changes could not be expected as long as key elements for success were missing.
“We need an independent judiciary and independent law enforcement agencies,” he said.
Medvedev has given priority to both points this year, but his bill for a wide-ranging police reform has been subject to much criticism and has yet to reach the State Duma.
Fedotov added that while there was political will on Medvedev’s part, another shortcoming was a lack of real political competition.
But Sergei Markov, a Duma deputy for United Russia and political pundit, said Transparency’s methods were doubtful. “Russia always fares bad in those surveys because Russia’s image is bad,” he said.
Yet he added that the country could learn from some of its strongest critics, saying Georgia has done well in reforming its police.
“[Georgian] President Mikheil Saakashvili may be a war criminal, but he has fought corruption effectively,” Markov said. Georgia made it to 68th place in the Transparency Index, scoring 3.8 points. займ онлайн hairy women www.zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/emergency-payday-loans.php займ на карту без отказов круглосуточно
Russian ombudsman comments on investigations committee, Magnitsky case
Interfax
29 October 2010 – A single investigations committee under the parliamentary control should be set up in Russia, Russian ombudsman Vladimir Lukin has said. He was speaking in an interview with Russian news agency Interfax.
“I am a supporter of creating a single investigations committee without binding it to another organization, but under very serious parliamentary and public control,” Lukin told Interfax.
Despite some difficulties, a control system like this should be organized in Russia as it is already functioning in a number of European countries, Lukin said.
“I realize quite well the whole complexity of an institution like parliamentary control. I realize that nobody has a right to interfere in operational affairs related to the investigation. But a system like this is operational in a number of democratic countries and it should be working in our country too, and not for the sake of formality but for real,” Lukin told the agency.
A committee like this should not be controlled by former employees of similar services, he added.
“It is not retired employees [from law-enforcement agencies] who should control a structure like this. It would look like a service within a service. It should be controlled by real members of society, representatives of people, who possess a special sense of responsibility and understand the complexity of the matter,” Lukin said.
In his interview Lukin also commented on the case relating to the Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergey Magnitskiy’s death. He said the case should be completed.
“I would very much like the people who are to blame for it all to be presented to court and general public,” Lukin told Interfax. “I am concerned that there are no clear perpetrators in this case. I believe that they are covering each other’s backs,” he added.
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Time to Revise Obama’s Russian “Reset” Policy
The Heritage Foundation
October 26, 2010 – In March 2009 in Geneva, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pressed the “reset button” to restart the frozen Russia–U.S. relationship. Since then, the Obama Administration has hailed the reset as a great accomplishment. However, U.S. concessions on New START, limitations on missile defense, and hands-off policies in Eurasia did not prevent Russia from pursuing policies that are often harmful to U.S. interests.
The New START
According to the Administration, New START is a direct result of its “resetting” of U.S.–Russian relations. The Administration views New START as a part of its “getting to zero” nuclear disarmament agenda while relying on unverifiable treaties to ensure compliance with a comprehensive nuclear weapons ban.
Additionally, the New START limits the U.S. ability to develop and deploy effective missile defenses to protect the homeland as well as America’s allies. There are concerns about the inadequacy of the New START verification regime: The degree of verifiability is low and the treaty fails to account for Russia’s 3,800-strong tactical nuclear arsenal. Additionally, the treaty appears to exclude rail-based ICBMs and their launchers from coverage and could permit Russia to circumvent the limits the treaty imposes on such.[1]
“The Near Abroad”
Russia also increased its presence and pressure in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. As a result of the 2008 Russia–Georgia war, Russia recognized the independence of secessionist Abkhazia and South Ossetia, established five military bases there, and deployed long-range S-300 missile batteries, which allow aerial control over most of Georgia.
In Armenia, Moscow recently extended the lease of the Gyumri military base until 2044 and made commitments to protect Armenia’s borders against Azerbaijan and Turkey. A recent Russian book on the Georgia war describes Gyumri as a staging area for an attack on Tbilisi, Georgia. The Russian–Armenian protocol makes Russia the dominant power in South Caucasus, as the U.S. and NATO are unwilling to commit to a long-term military presence there. This arrangement is similar to the renegotiated lease for the massive Sevastopol naval base in Ukraine as it, too, prevents the country’s future membership in NATO. Russia continues to keep a contingent in Transnistria on Moldovan soil.
Russia is also expanding attacks on the authoritarian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko in order to replace him with a more pliant, pro-Moscow (but not necessarily more democratic) president.
To further strengthen its dominance in Central Asia, Moscow used its media muscle in Kyrgyzstan to facilitate the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The move was payback for his refusal to evict the U.S. airbase at Manas airport. Russia now demands to be allowed to deploy an “anti-narcotics” military base in Osh in Fergana Valley, the scene of brutal violence in the summer of 2010.
Winning in Afghanistan is a vital U.S. national interest; the Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan, a major NATO refueling and transportation hub, has been critical to this effort. Nevertheless, the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan may negotiate a deal that would make Russia’s Gazprom a key supplier of jet fuel for Manas.
The U.S. and governments of Central Asia recognize that Russia and China will have clout in the heart of Eurasia. Nevertheless, they have a critical common interest in checking these nations’ influence in the region as well as denying terrorists and drug lords sanctuaries in Central Asia, especially after 2011. This has to be a part of a comprehensive, long-term strategy. The Obama Administration, however, is doing little to secure long-term U.S. presence in the region.
“See No Evil” Is Not a Policy
Despite its laudable support of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran, Russia last August fueled Iran’s nuclear reactor in Bushehr. Furthermore, Moscow continues to increase its engagement with terrorism-supporting regimes such as Syria and Venezuela. Presidents Hugo Chavez and Dmitry Medvedev signed an agreement to sell Venezuela a nuclear reactor. And Russia announced that it is planning to provide Venezuela with satellite launch capability—a dual-use technology that can be transformed into medium-range ballistic missile capability.[2]
Last month the Russian defense minister announced that Russia will supply supersonic P-800 Yakhont ram-jet supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria. These missiles are a major threat to the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and to America’s staunchest ally in the Middle East, Israel. By expanding weapons sales and maintaining ties with Hamas and Hezbollah, Russia is trying to muscle its way back into the Middle East through the use of neo-Soviet tactics: arms sales and the support of radicals.
Thus, the Kremlin is exploiting Obama’s “see no evil” approach in Russia’s expansion into former Soviet space and cooperation with anti-Western regimes. Russia has also prioritized its Arctic expansion and persists in its claim to a vast territory in the Arctic Ocean greater than Germany, France, and Italy combined. Moscow declared the Northern Sea Route around the northern edge of Eurasia as its territorial waters and is backing up its claim under the Law of the Sea Treaty with military force.[3]
Resetting the Reset
The Obama Administration believes that it needs strong international support for its military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as for confrontation with Iran, and North Korea, and, in the long run, possibly China. And in doing so, the White House hopes to bring Moscow to the U.S. side. So far, any such success is minimal.
The Obama Administration’s Russia policy will inevitably produce a massive loss of American influence in Eurasia and jeopardize the security of the U.S. and its friends and allies east of the Oder. Jeopardizing allies while empowering strategic competitors does not equal safety.
Instead, New START should be replaced with an alternative arms control treaty with Russia that would be based on a protect-and-defend strategy.[4] The U.S. should build alliances to check the influence of America’s geopolitical competitors, be it great powers or transnational actors such as radical, violent Islamist movements.
Throughout Eurasia, the U.S. should strengthen its ties with pro-Western forces while promoting good governance, individual rights, and the rule of law in order to facilitate foreign investment. Congress is seeking sanctions against those responsible for the murder of crusading lawyer Sergey Magnitsky. The U.S. should also demand justice for assassinated journalist Anna Politkovskaya and release of the jailed businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Washington should expand its political–military cooperation with the countries of Central Asia while preparing for the new security environment in the heart of Eurasia. It should explore greater economic and political–military engagement in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, including training and arms sales. The U.S. should also bolster economic, military, law enforcement, and government reform assistance to Kyrgyzstan and prevent Russia from controlling Manas.
In the Caucasus, the U.S. should sell modern defensive military equipment to Georgia and Azerbaijan and boost support for trans-Caspian and East–West gas pipelines. The Pentagon should explore possibilities of deploying “lily pad” military bases in Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Central Asian states.
In the High North, the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy need to increase the U.S. maritime presence, improve cooperation with NATO allies, and engage Russia diplomatically. Given that the demand for oil and gas is expected to rise, the U.S. should expand Arctic Ocean mapping and facilitate geological exploration. .
Putting American Interests First
The Obama Administration should recognize that the U.S.–Russia reset is happening only in the areas where Russia sees clear national interests (like Afghanistan) or where the U.S. is offering big paybacks, such as in the post-Soviet republics.
The U.S. should review its policies concerning Russia and the post-Soviet republics based on a realistic assessment of Russia’s intention and actions while giving top priority to American national interests.
Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., is Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Policy at the Katherine and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Policy at The Heritage Foundation. быстрые займы на карту unshaven girl https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php zp-pdl.com займ онлайн на карту без отказа
Mortality in Russian pretrial jails drops by 21% in 4 years
Interfax
26 October – Mortality among inmates in Russia’s pretrial detention centers has dropped by 21% for the past four years and makes up a little more than 20% of the general nationwide death rate, said the head of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service, Alexander Reimer.
In an interview posted on the agency’s website, Reimer argued that, due to recent legislation allowing crime suspects who are in custody and suffer from serious diseases to be released, “the situation will keep improving.”
Mentioning the death in a Moscow jail in November 2009 of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for the Hermitage Capital investment fund, Reimer claimed that quite often the reason why detainees and convicts die is that they find out they are chronically ill after being arrested.
Magnitsky, 37, died at Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison on November 16, 2009. He was being held on charges of tax evasion. His death caused widespread public outcry. The Investigative Committee started an inquiry into his death on charges of “not aiding a patient” and “negligence.” But rights activists claimed that Magnitsky’s death had not been investigated in earnest.
Magnitsky said in court that his criminal case was a revenge for his blaming a law enfacement official for misappropriating budgetary funds. unshaven girls buy over the counter medicines https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php hairy girl
Alexeyeva asks international community to react to Magnitsky death
Interfax
October 25 – Russian rights campaigners requested assistance during talks with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon in probing Hermitage Capital Foundation lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death at a detention facility.
“I said that if our authorities cannot punish the guilty, let the world community react,” a participant in the meeting, head of Moscow’s Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, told Interfax.
The talks also dealt with problems which Russian civil activists get confronted with, including in organizing public actions.
Russian rights activists complained that it is much easier for them to meet with foreign representatives than with Russian officials, who invite civil activists very rarely.
Alexeyeva earlier told Interfax that although not everything is proper with human rights in the United States, the situation there is better than in Russia.
Magnitsky, 37, died at the Matrosskaya Tishina prison on November 16, 2009. He was being held on charges of tax evasion. His death caused widespread public outcry. The Investigative Committee started an inquiry into his death on charges of “not aiding a patient” and “negligence.” But rights activists claimed that Magnitsky’s death had not been investigated in seriously.
Magnitsky said in court that his criminal case was a revenge for his blaming a law enfacement official for misappropriating budgetary funds. hairy woman займ на карту онлайн https://zp-pdl.com/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php онлайн займы
Russian human rights campaigners ask for international assistance with investigation into Magnitsky death
25 October: At a meeting in Moscow on Monday with Philip Gordon, US assistant secretary of state [for European and Eurasian affairs], Russian human rights campaigners asked for international assistance in the investigation into the death in a pre-trial detention centre in Moscow of Sergey Magnitskiy, the lawyer acting for Hermitage Capital [Management investment] fund.
“Regarding the Magnitskiy case, I said that, since our authorities can’t punish those responsible, let the international community respond to this,” Lyudmila Alekseyeva, one of the participants in the meeting and the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, told Interfax.
According to her, at the meeting they also discussed problems that civil activists in Russia face, particularly when trying to organize public rallies.
Russian rights campaigners complain that, as a rule, it is easier for them to meet representatives of foreign states than the Russian authorities, which rarely invite civil activists to a dialogue.
Earlier Alekseyeva told Interfax that, as regards human rights in the USA, not everything was satisfactory there but the situation in this sphere was better in America than in Russia.
“To become a trend-setter in the sphere of human rights, the USA should at the very least close down Guantanamo. There are no countries where everything is satisfactory in the sphere of human rights. But to compare the human rights situation in the USA to that in Russia, with all its shortcomings, is the same as to compare a decent summer day with a damp and cold autumn. Our human rights situation is incomparably worse. There are things we can learn from America,” Alekseyeva said in September.
Thirty-seven-year-old Sergey Magnitskiy, the lawyer of Hermitage Capital investment fund, died in the Matrosskaya Tishina remand centre on 16 November 2009. He was charged under Article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (tax evasion). His death had big public repercussions.
According to two forensic reports, a heart failure was the cause of the lawyer’s death. Forensic experts confirmed that Magnitskiy had suffered from the diseases he had been diagnosed with before but, according to them, they were not at an acute phase [at the time of his death].
Despite dismissals in the Federal Penal Service, according to human rights campaigners, no proper investigation into Magnitskiy’s death has been carried out.
On 29 September, Hermitage Capital announced that the chairman of the US state Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Senator Benjamin Cardin, introduced a bill to the US Congress that would block entry to the USA to Russian officials “responsible for the persecution and death of Sergey Magnitskiy”.
The prosecution of Hermitage Capital representatives in Russia started in June 2007. Magnitskiy maintained that his prosecution was revenge for the evidence he had given about the possible involvement of representatives of the law-enforcement authorities in stealing budget money. онлайн займы займ онлайн https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php онлайн займ
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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
