EU-RUSSIA: “MAGNITSKY ACT” RECEIVES SUPPORT!
MEPs gave green light to the initiative of Kristiina Ojuland for visa restrictions and assets freezing to individuals implicated in death of the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Today Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament voted for a recommendation to the EU Council with a score of 63 -2 – “no”, 1 – “abstention”.
On the eve of a vote Ojuland as a special reporter on the case held a debate with the representatives of differentn political groups in the European Parliament on amendments made.
“Hermitage Capital” Bill Browder, Magnitsky’s former employer, as a special guest of the hearing and an expert on the case called for ‘justice for Sergei’.
“We have all the evidence that Sergei had been beaten on the last night of his life, and he had been tortured before. Nevertheless Among 60 individuals implicated in the affair the only one who was prosecuted was a prison doctor, for not treating Sergei from the sicknesses he never had ” – said Browder.
Meanwhile the “Hermitage Capital” conducted its own investigation and the results were so convincing that the 39 million US doll in the accounts of corrupt officials have been frozen in Swiss banks recently.
“They love to travel and buy property in Europe, – observed Browder. – We must deny them this privilege, if we can’t get justice in Russia’. Since Magnitsky’s death the corrupt officials haven’t changed their luxurious lifestyle, acquiring properties and enjoying the European lifestyle. Moreover, the impunity encourages them to continue to insult the memory of the deceived and intimidate the victim’s relatives seeking justice.
Read More →
He’s With the Band: An interview with the first man of Pussy Riot.
Since the March arrest of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot, following their “Punk Prayer” at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, Tolokonnikova’s husband Pyotr Verzilov has acted as the group’s de facto media spokesman.
Verzilov and Tolokonnikova first rose to prominence as members of the radical performance art collective Voina, staging stunts like holding an orgy at a Moscow biology museum to protest the election of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, throwing cats over the counter at McDonald’s, and painting a “giant galactic space penis” on a St. Petersburg drawbridge.
This week, Verzilov is taking a different type of political action, holding meetings on Capitol Hill with supporters of the Magnitsky Act — a proposed law that would allow the U.S. to sanction Russian officials involved in human rights abuses. On Friday, he will accept the Amnesty International Prisoners of Conscience award, presented by Yoko Ono, on Pussy Riot’s behalf.
Verzilov is traveling in the United States in the company of the couple’s four-year-old daughter Gara and three of the band’s attorneys, two of whom have been placed under investigation themselves since taking up the case. On Wednesday, he sat down with FP at Amnesty International’s Washington office to discuss the latest on the case, the challenges of reaching the Russian public, and why no one should take Medvedev very seriously.
Foreign Policy: Can you tell me a little bit about your goals for this trip?
Pyotr Verzilov: Basically, our main goal is to have an extension of the list which will accompany the Magnitsky Act — the list of the people who cannot travel to the United States, open bank accounts, or basically do business with the United States — to people connected with the Pussy Riot case. In our opinion, this is the only thing which influences Russian authorities or members of the law enforcement in any way. Obviously, they’re well prepared for various proclamations letters, memorandums, and demonstrations, and signs of outrage of any kind. But the one thing they are not okay with is having their bank accounts frozen, with losing the ability to travel to the West, with losing their respected status and the possibility of a pleasurable lifestyle. In their minds, this is closely connected to the West and not with Russia.
One thing that a lot of people don’t understand about Russia and Russian authorities is that all these people — whatever the patriotism they show in their language — they see their lifestyle as something very closely connected to the West. Obviously, most Russian bureaucrats are heavily rooted in corruption, and all their funds, their children’s education, their vacations, everything is spent in nice places like the south of France. Their children get an education in the U.K., and other places. So the worst nightmare for all these people is to not have ability to continue this lifestyle in the West. And so the Putinist Russian elite is gravely scared of getting on the Magnitsky list, because in their eyes this will basically cut them off from the outside world. So this is exactly why Putin’s government has been reacting so nervously to this list, and why they oppose it as fiercely as they can. So, this is the question we bring up in all our meetings with U.S. officials: We want to press for people not only related to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, but also to the jailing of the three Pussy Riot girls to appear on this list.
Read More →
Putin Does His Own ‘Reset’
Democrats and the media who love them have ridiculed Mitt Romney for saying Russia is America’s “number one geopolitical foe,” and Vladimir Putin recently all but endorsed President Obama for re-election. But the Russian President keeps behaving in ways that prove the Republican had a point.
In the latest slap to America, the Kremlin announced this week it is expelling the U.S. Agency for International Development. The aid arm of the State Department has spent almost $3 billion in the last two decades to feed and modernize Russia and, in recent years, promote human rights and free elections. The relatively small $50 million annual program will close October 1. Justifying the move, the Russian foreign ministry on Wednesday accused the U.S. of trying “to influence political processes, including elections of various types.”
Among the groups that get American assistance is Golos, which has exposed the Kremlin’s electoral fraud. Golos and other NGOs will be hard-pressed to find new funding. Russians are reluctant to support democratic groups, lest they end up like oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in a Siberian prison.
Stunned by large pro-democracy protests in Moscow and other cities last winter and spring, the Kremlin has cracked down. Anyone who takes a penny from an outside source is now branded a “foreign agent.” Penalties for public protests are stiffer. Prosecutors are dredging up criminal cases against activists, and more show trials are coming.
Read More →
U.S. should redouble effort to boost Russian democracy
In what has been a steadily escalating campaign to shore up his power after a bumpy return to Russia’s presidency, Vladimir Putin has delivered an audacious double blow. By ending cooperation with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), he has deprived a host of Russian pro-democracy organizations of critical funding — and administered a sharp rebuff to the United States, which he portrays as an adversary. This coup, delivered in a diplomatic note on Sept. 11, was, as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) aptly put it, “a finger in the eye of the Obama administration.”
You wouldn’t have known that, however, from listening Tuesday to the State Department. In announcing the Russian decision, State carefully avoided criticizing USAID’s eviction from Moscow. Asked whether the administration was disappointed, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland repeatedly described the cutoff of $29 million in funding for democracy and civil society programs as “a sovereign decision.” When asked if it affected the administration’s much-promoted “reset” of relations with Russia, she said: “When we talk about the reset, we talk primarily about global and regional foreign policy issues on which we work together.” (On Wednesday, after the Russian foreign ministry claimed that USAID had been shut down for meddling in elections, Ms. Nuland called the decision “regrettable.”)
Perhaps this laconic response can be attributed to the administration’s election-eve unwillingness to acknowledge a setback in one of its signature foreign policies; challenger Mitt Romney has been a trenchant critic of the “reset.” Still, it’s disheartening to hear officials describe support for democracy as marginal to U.S. relations with Russia, at the very moment when pressure for political change there is greater than it has been in more than a decade.
Since announcing his return to the presidency last year, Mr. Putin has faced a swelling opposition movement. In its attempt to squelch it, the Kremlin has concocted legal charges against leaders, ramped up penalties for participation in “illegal” protests and rammed through a law requiring non-governmental organizations that receive foreign funds to register as “foreign agents.” Its booting of USAID will strip funding to groups such as Golos, an independent election monitoring group that publicized fraud in Mr. Putin’s reelection as president last March.
This is a time for the United States to redouble its support for Russian democracy, rather than quietly accepting the shutdown of its programs. Officials say they will try to provide funding by other means; one way of doing so would be to create a new $50 million fund to support Russian civil society organizations. The Obama administration proposed this initiative to Congress last year but met resistance from Republicans.
Similar shortsightedness by House Republicans recently prevented the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky bill, which would punish Russian officials guilty of human rights abuses by freezing their U.S. assets and banning them from receiving visas. The Obama administration long resisted the bill but now is prepared to accept it if it is linked to legislation that would remove restrictions on trade. Passage of the Magnitsky bill and the new democracy fund would be an appropriate response to Mr. Putin; Congress should make those a priority. займ онлайн на карту без отказа займы онлайн на карту срочно zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php займ на карту срочно без отказа
Bill Browder Interview on Charlie Rose Show
Bill Browder, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management talks to Charlie Rose about the Sergei Magnitsky case, his lawyer who was killed for exposing corruption, and his fight for justice.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/12560
hairy girls hairy girls https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php https://zp-pdl.com займ на карту без отказов круглосуточно
MEPs call for sanctions against Russian officials involved in the Magnitsky case
The foreign affairs committee called on Thursday for an EU-wide visa ban and assets freeze against Russian officials responsible for the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the subsequent judicial cover-up and the harassment of his mother and widow.
In a recommendation adopted by an overwhelming majority, the committee calls on the Council to draw up a list of officials responsible for the death in custody of Magnitsky, to impose EU-wide travel restrictions on them and to freeze their and their families’ financial assets in the EU.
They also call on Russia to conduct a credible and independent investigation encompassing all aspects of this tragic case.
Climate of impunity
The arrest, detention and death in custody of Sergei Magnitsky represent a well-documented and substantial case of disrespect for fundamental human rights, MEPs say, pointing to the stalled investigation of the case and the current climate of impunity in Russia, despite the findings of the Russian President’s Human Rights Council in 2011.
The officials involved have been exonerated and even assigned to the posthumous case, the text underlines.
Read More →
Russia says USAID ousted for meddling in elections
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said that the U.S. Agency for International Development was being barred from operating in the country beginning Oct. 1 because it had meddled in elections.
The statement followed a State Department announcement the day before that USAID had been ordered out after operating in Russia for two decades.
The U.S. agency had strayed from “the declared goals of assisting the development of bilateral humanitarian cooperation,” Alexander Lukashevich, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website. “We are talking about attempts via distributing grants to influence political processes, including elections of various levels and civil society institutions.”
The government of President Vladimir Putin had previously accused Western governments of trying to influence the parliamentary elections in December and subsequent protests calling into question the results of that balloting and Putin’s own election in March.
One of the first victims of this week’s order will be Golos, an independent Russian organization whose monitors reported massive violations during the elections. The group was one of the key recipients of USAID grants.
Read More →
Russia Demands U.S. Agency Halt Work
The Kremlin sounded its stiffest rebuke to U.S. democracy-building efforts in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, ordering the U.S. to halt work of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Russia by Oct. 1.
The move is a blow to the Obama administration’s avowed “reset” in relations between the U.S. and Russia, prompting leading Republicans to demand a strong U.S. response. The decision also adds Russia to the list of countries such as Egypt whose leaders, seeing disorder at home, have singled out U.S.-funded democracy-building programs for blame.
The U.S. State Department confirmed Tuesday it had received the Russian government’s decision to end USAID’s activities in the country. The Kremlin didn’t respond to calls to comment.
USAID, created in 1961 to promote democracy, human rights and public health, now works in more than 100 countries. With approximately 70 U.S. and local staff members in Russia, it has provided a backbone to U.S. efforts to foster a Western-style political system in the country.
Russian leaders, and President Vladimir Putin in particular, have been leery of U.S. support for democracy movements ever since the so-called color revolutions in Eastern Europe, and more so in the wake of the Arab Spring. Mr. Putin once described Russian NGOs that accept U.S. aid as “jackals.” Last December, he engaged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a public and heated exchange after she described Russian elections as flawed.
Read More →
The White Ribbon Project – For Democracy and Freedom in Ru
“The White Ribbon Project” is a campaign dedicated to raising awareness about the ongoing pro-democracy protest movement in the Russian Federation, symbolised by the white ribbon lapel pins popularised by protestors.
Inspired by the thousands of ordinary Russians who have peacefully protested against electoral fraud and in favour of democratic reform since December 2011, the Russia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society asked key Russian activists and cultural figures to share their feelings about what the white ribbon symbolises for them.
This is the first of a series of videos, explaining why Russian protestors are wearing the white ribbon.
срочный займ на карту онлайн срочный займ https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php https://zp-pdl.com/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php hairy girl
-
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