Posts Tagged ‘chizhov’
Russia, E.U. tussle over ‘Magnitsky list’ visa restrictions
Russian and European Union officials meeting at a summit Tuesday discussed liberalizing visa rules for many Russians, an issue that brought objections from politicians concerned about human rights abuses.
Russia wants 15,000 government employees who have official passports to be given the right to enter Europe without visas, but some members of the European Parliament say that would give human rights violators free entry as well. On Tuesday, as the summit was taking place in Yekaterinburg, nearly 50 parliament members sent a letter to E.U. foreign and interior ministers saying they would oppose the agreement unless it came with a list of excluded officials.
The letter was in support of a European version of the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which imposes visa sanctions on Russians associated with the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in jail after he accused police and tax officials of a $230 million tax fraud.
In a vote last October, the European Parliament urged E.U. countries to adopt their own “Magnitsky lists,” which none has done so far. Russia has made it clear such actions would come with retaliation. After the U.S. law was passed, Russia banned American adoptions of Russian orphans.
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OSCE Calls for Sanctions Against Suspects in Magnitsky Case
Lawmakers with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have called for sanctions against Russians implicated in the jail death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, even as one of the key suspects witnessed the vote in person.
“The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly calls on national parliaments to take action to impose visa sanctions and freezes on persons responsible for the false arrest, torture, denial of medical care and death of Sergei Magnitsky,” says the resolution approved Sunday.
Magnitsky was jailed in late 2008 after accusing tax and police officials of embezzling a $230 million tax refund owed to Hermitage Capital. He died in jail in November 2009 shortly after being badly beaten by prison guards, according to an independent Kremlin human rights council investigation.
Last month, Hermitage Capital released a video accusing Interior Ministry investigators Pavel Karpov and Artyom Kuznetsov, who arrested Magnitsky, of having ties to an organized crime syndicate supposedly led by Dmitry Klyuyev, former owner of the Universal Savings Bank.
Klyuyev and an associate attended the session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s annual meeting, held in Monaco on Sunday.
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Magnitsky Case ‘Not to Affect’ Russia-EU Visa Talks – Diplomat
Controversy around the high-profile death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009 will not affect talks between Russia and the European Union on scrapping visa restrictions, a senior official said on Monday.
“The talks are going ahead according to schedule,” Russia’s envoy to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told RIA Novosti.
Chizhov called against “politicizing this situation” and said there would be a meeting of “high-ranking officials” at an unspecified date which would “clear up all the remaining questions.”
The Netherlands imposed travel bans on some 60 Russian officials over the Magnitsky case in July 2011, and a number of EU parliaments have vowed to follow suit.
Magnitsky, who worked for a British investment fund, was detained in November 2008 after accusing officials of a $230 million tax fraud. He died a year later in his cell after deliberate neglect and beatings, the Kremlin’s human rights body said in a report in 2011.
Last month, a U.S. Senate panel unanimously passed the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act,” a bill that would penalize Russian officials linked with Magnitsky’s jailing and death, as well as other human rights abusers in Russia.
Russia has called the bill an attempt to interfere in its domestic affairs and threatened to respond.
In January, a senior EU official said an agreement to ease visa procedures for short-term stays may be signed within the next six months. hairy girl займ на карту https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php https://zp-pdl.com/apply-for-payday-loan-online.php займ на карту
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Russia: EU action on Magnitsky would ‘poison’ relations
Russia’s EU ambassador has said ties would suffer if member states follow the US in putting sanctions on suspected Russian killers and fraudsters.
“It would poison relations, definitely,” Vladimir Chizhov told EUobserver in an interview.
He added: “Well, I am sure that reason will prevail in the European Union. I have more confidence in the EU than I have in the US Congress.”
The Congress’ international committee in June approved the so-called Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act.
If it becomes law, the US will impose visa bans and asset freezes on 60-or-so Russian officials suspected of conspiracy to murder Sergei Magnitsky – an auditor who exposed tax fraud in the Kremlin and who was found beaten to death in prison in 2009.
Chizhov said that he is “not threatening anybody.”
But he noted that Russia might impose counter-sanctions on US officials if the Magnitsky bill gets through.
“The Russian Duma could launch a piece of legislation called the Guantanamo act or the Abu Ghraib act,” he said, referring to US human rights violations in Cuba and Iraq.
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