US Magnitsky Law draws Kremlin ire – but many Russians support it
The new law, enacted in the US last week to target Russians involved in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, has infuriated the Kremlin, which sees it as a ‘purely political, unfriendly act.’
Russia’s State Duma will take up a stern new bill Tuesday, the Dima Yakovlev List, aimed at punishing US officials who are implicated in human rights violations against Russians, including adoptive children who die at the hands of American parents and others allegedly abused by the US justice system.
The Duma bill appears to be pure retaliation for the Magnitsky List, targeted against Russian officials involved in the 2009 prison death of Russian anti-corruption whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, which was signed into law by President Obama on Friday.
The Yakovlev List, named after one of about 15 Russian children to die at the hands of their adoptive US parents in the past two decades, will levy tough economic and visa sanctions against American officials perceived to be involved in mistreatment of Russians.
Read More →
Ballets Russes: A scandal exposes the delicacy of Britain’s relationship with Russia
IN JOHN LE CARRÉ’S 1990 thriller, “The Secret Pilgrim”, a retired British spy looks back, melancholy and uncertain, on his exotic career. The novel rightly consigns the “nonsense” of cold war espionage to a bygone age, says Russia’s embassy in London. It offered this literary insight in response to recent reports alleging links between shady Russian diplomats and Britain’s Conservative Party. The embassy accused the source of the offending reports, the Guardian, of “blatant disregard for common decency” and advised it to “exercise its freedom responsibly”. That the statement read like a Politburo screed did little to help its argument.
For the Tories, who are strenuously defending that same press freedom from proposed statutory regulations, the affair is deeply embarrassing. The subject of the Guardian’s investigation, the Conservative Friends of Russia (CFOR) group, was “too close to the Russian embassy”, admits a senior Tory. Its establishment and later ignominy illustrates the delicacy of politicians’ dealings with Russia.
The relationship between the two countries has long been choppy. The previous Labour government fell out with the Kremlin over Britain’s harbouring of Russian dissidents and renegade businessmen, and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. So Moscow turned its attention to the Conservatives. In 2010 the state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported a wave of “Toryphilia” sweeping the Russian foreign ministry.
Read More →
JBANC Applauds Passage of Magnitsky Human Rights Legislation; President Obama signs Act into Law
The Joint Baltic American National Committee, Inc. (JBANC), representing the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian communities in the United States, enthusiastically applauds the passage of the Magnitsky Act in the U.S. Congress, and the signing of the Act into law by President Barack Obama on Dec. 14.
The human rights component of the law, which targets human rights offenders in Russia in the death of attorney and whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, was attached to the Act which grants Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the Russian Federation and similarly abolishes the popularly-called Jackson-Vanik amendment – on the books since 1974 – which both aided the emigration of Soviet Jews and held the USSR accountable on human rights issues. Since the Jackson-Vanik component has become anachronistic, the Magnitsky law takes its place as a marker in U.S. concerns over ongoing human rights abuses and corruption in the Russian Federation.
Read More →
Obama Signs Magnitsky Act Into Law
President Barack Obama signed legislation that cracks down on human-rights abusers in Russia.
The legislation, part of a broader bill that normalizes trade relations with Russia, passed the Senate last week after clearing the House of Representatives in November.
The human rights provision attached to the trade bill was named for Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management who has been cheered as a martyr and a whistleblower after he made allegations of a huge fraud scandal in Russia and died while in the hands of Russian authorities.
Under the law, the U.S. assets of human-rights abusers in Russia would be frozen and they would be banned from being granted visas to enter the U.S.
Moscow has rejected the allegations of human-rights abuses, and has vowed to retaliate with similar legislation.
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Magnitsky Act “unfriendly,” saying U.S.-Russian relations were at stake. онлайн займы микрозайм онлайн https://zp-pdl.com/best-payday-loans.php www.zp-pdl.com unshaven girls
Why Russia Is Trying a Dead Man
At the end of November, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced the upcoming trial of Sergei Magnitsky, a man who’s been dead for more than three years. Putting a dead person on trial hasn’t been done in Europe in more than 1,000 years. The reason is obvious: a dead person can’t defend himself, no matter how absurd the charges.
The story of this latest twist in the Magnitsky case begins with his death on Nov. 16, 2009. Magnitsky’s death in detention led to the automatic closing of the criminal case against him.
In July 2011, the Kremlin’s human rights council published its conclusions about the arrest and death of Magnitsky. They were unequivocal:
1. Magnitsky’s arrest and detention were in breach of the European Human Rights Convention.
2. Magnitsky was beaten by prison officials before his death.
3. In contravention of the law, Magnitsky was prosecuted by the same officers he earlier implicated in corruption.
4. Authorities resisted full investigation into corruption and fraud uncovered by Magnitsky.
5. The Russian courts failed to provide any legal redress to Magnitsky.
These were not conclusions Russian law enforcement officials wanted to hear. They led to an avalanche of criminal complaints, many of which were filed by Magnitsky’s mother, against those who participated in the theft Magnitsky reported and in his illegal arrest and death. Therefore, in July 2011, the Prosecutor General’s Office decided to legitimize the case against Magnitsky by reopening it.
Read More →
Visas, human rights on EU-Russia agenda this WEEK
The signature of a small-time visa deal is likely to form the centrepiece of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s visit to Brussels.
The so-called upgraded visa facilitation agreement (VFA) is designed to reduce paperwork and delays for some classes of Russian citizens, such as officials, academics and businessmen.
The EU foreign service told this website the pact has been “held back” by Russia’s last minute request to allow visa-free travel for its officials “which we have not been able to agree.” But it added: “We should sign the upgraded VFA as it stands now.”
What Russia really wants is visa-free travel for everybody.
The EU recently sent two delegations to Russia to see what it is doing to meet technical standards on issues such as border control. But the foreign service noted that “information gathering will need to be followed by reforms” and that the EU is not yet ready to start negotiations on a visa-free pact.
In one way, the real centrepiece will be Putin’s presence in the EU capital.
He will attend a dinner with top EU officials Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday (20 December) and a working meeting on Friday.
The last time he came, in February 2011, he created a celebrity buzz in the European Commission, with lots of EU officials who do not work on Russia crowding into the commission’s press room to see him up close.
Putin and Barroso at the time clashed on EU laws designed to limit the power of Russian energy champion Gazprom.
In the meantime, Barroso has opened a competition probe into alleged Gazprom price-fixing which could see it fined billions of euros and forced to renegotiate contracts.
Read More →
Cyprus launches probe into Russian mafia money
Cyprus has opened an investigation into evidence that stolen Russian tax money linked to the murder of Sergei Magnitsky was laundered through its banks.
Mokas, its anti-money-laundering unit, in an email to EUobserver on Thursday (13 December), said: “At this point … in Cyprus there is an open investigation on this matter.” It noted: “Mokas is conducting the investigation, which functions within the office of the attorney general.”
It added that the probe already began some time ago.
But it went ahead with some reluctance.
Magnitsky, a 37-year-old Russian accountant, was killed in jail in 2009 after he exposed a huge tax embezzlement by a criminal gang – “the Klyuev group” – involving high ranking officials in the Russian interior ministry and its internal intelligence service, the FSB.
Lawyers for his former employer, the UK-based Hermitage Capital investment fund, submitted evidence to Cyprus’ attorney general in July.
Its papers, including copies of financial transfers – seen by this website – show that $31 million of the tax money was moved out of Russia using five Cypriot banks: Alpha Bank, Cyprus Popular Bank, FBME Bank, Privatbank International and Komercbanka.
Read More →
Obama Signs Magnitsky Act Into Law
US President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law the Magnitsky Act, a bill punishing Russian officials for alleged human rights violations that US lawmakers attached to a landmark trade bill normalizing trade relations with Moscow.
The aspects of the law targeting Russian officials, which simultaneously repeals the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik law, has angered the Kremlin, which says it is an attempt by the United States to interfere in Russia’s internal affairs.
The law calls on the White House to draw up a list of Russian officials deemed by Washington to be complicit in rights abuses. These officials will then be banned from obtaining US visas and have their US assets frozen.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued an angry statement Friday in response to the new US law, calling the linking of the human rights legislation to the trade bill “cynical.”
The statement also made reference to the Obama administration’s original reluctance to attach the Magnitsky Act to the trade legislation, an effort that had overwhelming bipartisan support in the US Congress.
“We regret that a US administration declaring its commitment to the development of stable and constructive bilateral relations was unable to defend its stated position against those who look to the past and see our country not as a partner, but rather an opponent—fully in line with the canons of the Cold War,” the ministry said in the statement.
Read More →
Obama Signs Russia, Moldova Trade Bill And Magnitsky Sanctions Into Law
U.S. President Barack Obama has signed into law legislation that grants permanent normal trade relations to Russia and Moldova while also paving the way for sanctions against Russian officials implicated in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
“I think the legislation is important legislation — all of it — and the president was happy to sign it,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters after the bill was signed on December 14. “He believes it’s an important step forward in our relationship with Russia.”
By permanently exempting Moscow from trade barriers imposed by the Cold-War-era Jackson-Vanik Amendment, the United States will look to benefit from increased commerce with Russia afforded by its August entry into the World Trade Organization.
The attached Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act mandates the president to publicly name Russian officials that he determines are responsible for the death of the Russian whistleblower. The officials will then be subject to U.S. visa bans or visa revocations as well as asset freezes.
Read More →
-
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
