Posts Tagged ‘BBC’
David Cameron urged to challenge Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev
David Cameron has been urged by four former foreign secretaries to challenge the Russian government on a number of issues during his visit to Moscow.
They want President Dmitry Medvedev to be confronted over a perceived failure to protect business against corruption.
In a Sunday Times letter, they also call for the PM to raise the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. The call is from Labour’s Margaret Beckett, David Miliband, Jack Straw and Conservative Sir Malcolm Rifkind.
The letter says hundreds of thousands of Russian businessmen are detained in jails after falling victim to corruption sanctioned by the authorities. They refer to these people as “victims of an increasingly potent mix of corruption and lawlessness”.
In their letter, the former foreign secretaries state: “The dangers of this corruption do not stop at Russia’s borders and Alexander Litvinenko’s murder shows the consequences of such lawlessness hitting British shores.
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Russia: Charges against Magnitskiy case doctors see mixed response
Medical officers Larisa Litvinova and Dmitriy Kratov from the Butyrka pre-trial detention centre have been charged with the manslaughter of Hermitage Capital fund lawyer Sergey Magnitskiy, the privately-owned Interfax news agency reported on 12 August. They are said to have been negligent in providing care to Magnitskiy before his transfer to the Matrosskaya Tishina remand centre, where he later died.
Litvinova and Kratov were among those identified by rights activists as being complicit in Magnitskiy’s death. The Russian rights activists, who were involved in the independent probe, have not responded with a great deal of enthusiasm, expressing concern that charges against Litvinova and Kratov will become something of a smoke screen.
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Sergei Magnitsky: Russian officials named as suspects
Russian prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into two prison officials over the high-profile death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
The deputy governor and chief doctor at Butyrskaya prison in Moscow are suspected of negligence causing death.
Magnitsky’s case has become a cause celebre. Arrested after accusing the police of corruption, he was reportedly beaten and denied treatment in jail.
A report has concluded he suffered deliberate neglect and torture.
The group Physicians for Human Rights, on the request of Magnitsky’s family, conducted the first independent medical evaluation of the case.
The report, released on Monday, concluded that he received “inadequate medical treatment”, and that his death was the result of “calculated, deliberate and inhumane neglect”.
It called on the Russian government to accept responsibility under the UN Convention Against Torture.
Different suspects
President Dmitry Medvedev’s human rights council produced a report earlier this month which concluded that there was reasonable suspicion that Magnitsky’s death was triggered by beatings while in police custody.
The report singled out senior interior ministry investigator Oleg Silchenko and prison chief Ivan Prokopenko as being at fault for neglect over the lawyer’s death.
However, these are not the same two officials named by prosecutors on Monday.
They are Larisa Litvinova, chief physician at Butyrskaya prison, and the prison’s deputy chief Dmitry Kratov.
Magnitsky’s former employer told the Associated Press that more powerful people were still being protected.
“The Russian government are desperately trying to create the appearance that they are doing something here, without going after the real guilty parties,” said William Browder, who runs Hermitage Capital Management, for whom Magnitsky was working.
Magnitsky had claimed to have unearthed evidence that implicated the police, officials and bankers in a massive fraud, which used Hermitage as a vehicle.
He was later arrested, himself accused of fraud, and investigated by some of the very same people he had accused of corruption.
He was imprisoned without trial in November 2008, developed pancreatitis in jail but was never properly treated, and died in November 2009, aged 37. займы на карту срочно займ онлайн на карту без отказа https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php займ на карту онлайн
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Medvedev: Criminal acts killed Russian lawyer Magnitsky
BBC
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said the death in police custody of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was likely the result of criminal actions.
A Russian government rights body reported to Mr Medvedev that police, prison officials and doctors all shared blame for Mr Magnitsky’s death.
Mr Magnitsky died in 2009, accused of fraud after himself accusing Russian officials of a huge tax fraud scheme. No-one has been charged over his death or the tax fraud he alleged.
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Should investors avoid Russia, because of state interference
BBC World Service – Business Daily
Should investors avoid Russia, because of state interference, a flaky legal system, corruption and violence? Lesley Curwen talks to two foreign investors with opposing views. Hedge fund manager Bill Browder alleges his former lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was tortured and died in a Russian prison. Mr Browder, the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management says anyone contemplating investing in Russia should ‘lay down for a while and wait until the urge passes’ because it is ‘truly dangerous.’
Jochen Wermuth disagrees. He is founder of the “Greater Europe” investment funds which have invested over $1bn there. He argues Russia is changing, the population has had enough of corruption, and says ‘what makes us stay is the great opportunity to participate in the change.’ However he also admits things cannot get much worse. займ онлайн онлайн займы https://zp-pdl.com/emergency-payday-loans.php zp-pdl.com payday loan
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Bill Browder welcomes US action over Magnitsky death
A powerful group of US politicians has called for sanctions against Russians allegedly involved in a campaign against financier Bill Browder. Once one of Russia’s largest investors, he claims officials were complicit in a fraud against his firm and the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Now Congressmen, including heavyweights Joe Lieberman and John McCain, propose banning the officials from the US.
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev has promised a full inquiry into the death.
The US politicians are backing new legislation put before Congress on Friday, The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011.
In 2005, Mr Browder, who runs fund manager Hermitage Capital, was banned from Russia as a threat to national security after allegations that his firm evaded tax. But Mr Browder says his company was targeted in a $230m (£140m) fraud, and has mounted a strong campaign to uncover what happened to the money and Mr Magnitsky, Hermitage’s lawyer.
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Nemtsov called on the EU to impose sanctions against Vladimir Putin
Leaders of Russian “non-systemic” opposition vowed to pursue the introduction of sanctions by Western countries against the concrete of the ruling circles, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Deputy Head of Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov.
The European Parliament is discussing possible sanctions against Russian officials implicated in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and “the Khodorkovsky case, but while it was Putin and Surkov lists, according to unofficial data, there is, and the prospects of introducing sanctions themselves fairly vague.
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Medvedev: Russia is “very poor” investment climate
President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia’s investment climate is “very bad”. In the crisis year of 2009 the flow of foreign direct investments in the Russian economy fell by almost half compared with the previous one.
“An important theme is the investment climate, these must be dealt with in the first place” – the president said, speaking Wednesday at a meeting to establish an international financial center in Moscow.
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