Posts Tagged ‘congress’
Magnitsky Sanctions Listings
Magnitsky Sanctions Listings
4/12/2013
OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL
Specially Designated Nationals List Update
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has added the following names to the SDN list under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012. The newly added SDN list tag of [MAGNIT] corresponds to this new program.
The following individuals have been added to OFAC’s SDN List:
BOGATIROV, Letscha (a.k.a. BOGATYREV, Lecha; a.k.a. BOGATYRYOV, Lecha); DOB 14 Mar 1975; POB Atschkoi, Chechen Republic, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
DROGANOV, Aleksey O.; DOB 11 Oct 1975; POB Lesnoi Settlement, Pushkin Area, Moscow Region, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
DUKUZOV, Kazbek; DOB 1974; POB Urus-Martan District, Chechen Republic, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KARPOV, Pavel; DOB 27 Aug 1977; POB Moscow, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KHIMINA, Yelena; DOB 11 Sep 1953; POB Moscow, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KOMNOV, Dmitriy; DOB 17 May 1977; POB Kashira Region, Moscow, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KRIVORUCHKO, Aleksey (a.k.a. KRIVORUCHKO, Alex; a.k.a. KRIVORUCHKO, Alexei); DOB 25 Aug 1977; POB Moscow Region, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
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US publishes Magnitsky list of sanctioned Russians
The United States has published a list of mainly Russian officials banned from entering the country because of alleged human rights abuses.
Russia had earlier warned against making the 18 names public, warning it could severely damage relations.
The US imposed the sanctions after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in jail in 2009 in disputed circumstances.
The list includes tax officials and police officers who jailed Magnitsky after he accused them of corruption.
But senior officials from President Vladimir Putin’s entourage who had been expected to be included were left off, including Russia’s top police official Alexander Bastrykin.
Alexei Pushkov, a senior Russian lawmaker, said the pared down list suggested that “the US presidential administration decided not to take the path of aggravating a political crisis with Moscow”, according to the Interfax news agency.
Some 250 names had originally been put forward by US politicians. The final list includes people from Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, 16 of them linked to the Magnitsky case.
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US blacklists 18 Russians over case of dead lawyer Magnitsky
The Obama administration has blacklisted 18 Russians for human rights violations in relation to the case of deceased lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The move could cause further friction between Washington and Moscow.
The US Treasury on Tuesday released the names of 16 Moscow prosecutors, investigators, tax officials and judges linked to the Magnitsky case. Two Chechens tied to other alleged rights violations were also on the list.
The list was part of a law passed last year, named after Russian human rights lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky died in 2009 after 11 months in Russian jails. He was arrested for tax evasion in 2008 after he exposed massive theft of state assets by Russian officials. He died in prison after allegedly being beaten and denied medical treatment.
Included on the list were Artem Kuznetsov and Pavel Karpov, two Interior Ministry officials who imprisoned Magnitsky after he accused them of stealing $230 million (175 million euros) from the state. Tax officials accused of approving fraudulent tax refunds, as well as other Interior Ministry officials accused of persecuting Magnitsky, were also on the list.
The US Treasury also named Moscow judges Aleksey Krivoruchko, Sergei Podoprigorov, Yelena Stashina and Svetlana Ukhnalyova, who were involved in Magnitsky’s detention.
Two men from Chechnya, Letscha Bogatirov and Kazbek Dukuzov, were also blacklisted. Bogatirov was accused of killing a critic of Chechnya’s Moscow-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov in 2009, while Dukuzov was arrested, tried and exonerated in the 2004 murder of US journalist Paul Klebnikov in Moscow.
List required by Magnitsky Act.
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Senator Blunt Urges President Obama To Address Blatant Pattern Of Russian Intimidation, Repression
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) sent a letter to President Barack Obama this week expressing his concern for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “broader pattern of blatant intimidation and authoritarianism,” as demonstrated by Putin’s ban on U.S. adoptions and the recent expulsion of a Russian lawmaker from his party after he met with Blunt and other U.S. lawmakers in April 2013 to improve relations between the two countries.
“Last month I had the opportunity to visit with Russian opposition lawmaker named Dmitry Gudkov, who was in the United States in an effort to improve relations between our countries. During our visit we discussed the Russian Government’s recent ban on U.S. adoptions, among other important matters. When he returned to Russia, Mr. Gudkov was expelled from his party and accused of treason for discussing these matters with American lawmakers,” wrote Blunt. “I’m deeply concerned about Russia’s further slide into authoritarianism and believe that the United States should provide international leadership that both calls attention to this behavior and take steps to address it.”
On January 18, 2013, Blunt joined a bipartisan coalition of more than 70 House and Senate members in sending a letter to Putin urging him to reverse a law banning the adoption of Russian children by American families. Blunt and his colleagues also sent a separate letter to President Obama urging him to help American families by encouraging the Russian government to complete cases that were pending before the adoption ban took effect.
On January 1, 2013, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution introduced by Blunt and U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (La.) strongly condemning President Putin’s ban on the adoption of Russian children by Americans families and urging the Russian government to reconsider the law.
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U.S. Magnitsky List Near-Finalized
The U.S. government is expected this week to finalize the list of Russian officials to be punished for suspected human rights abuses under the Magnitsky Act. But the final version of the list, due to be released by Saturday, may become a sticking point between Congress and the State Department.
Congress is apprehensive about the White House’s decision to release only 15 names so as not to fuel tensions with the Kremlin, Kommersant reported, citing a source in Congress who did not specify why the number was 15. Representative James McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat who was one of the authors of the law, sent to Obama’s administration on Friday his own list of 280 names.
McGovern said a shortlist such as the one by the White House might produce a conflict between the State Department and Congress, and the latter would insist on gradually updating the list. “If the final version is short, we will have to pass a new, tougher amendment,” he told Kommersant in an interview published Monday.
The law is aimed to punish Russian officials implicated in whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death in jail in 2009, a year after he had accused officials of embezzling $230 million in state funds. Officials placed on the list would be banned from entering the U.S., and their assets there would be frozen.
According to the Magnitsky Act, signed into law in December, the list of officials must be sent to Congress by April 13. U.S. President Barack Obama said in a memorandum Friday that he had delegated functions for creating the list to the U.S. Treasury and State Departments.
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President Obama Should Uphold the Magnitsky Act’s Legislative Intent
The Foundry – Heritage Foundation
Next week, the Obama Administration faces an important foreign policy decision in U.S. relations with Russia—how to champion human rights and the rule of law. The State Department is trying to avoid a gust of chilling wind from Moscow.
However, the last thing the Administration should do is show weakness to Moscow or subvert the will of Congress as stipulated in the recent Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 signed by President Obama last December.
Under the Magnitsky Act, the State Department is supposed to submit a list of corrupt Russian officials who are gross violators of human rights. The U.S. will then ban these violators’ travel to the U.S. and freeze any assets they hold in American banks. The State Department has until April 13 to compile such a list for implementation.
The Magnitsky Act’s intent is to name and shame the corrupt officials responsible for whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky’s brutal death in 2009 and send a message that the U.S. takes human rights violations in Russia seriously.
However, one of the law’s co-sponsors doubts Obama’s resolve to implement the list. Representative Jim McGovern (D–MA) created his own list of officials as he fears for how the Magnitsky Act will be enforced and whether the Administration’s list will have enough teeth. McGovern’s list includes 280 names, including Yuri Chaika, the Prosecutor General of Russia who closed the investigation into Magintsky’s death; the head of the Russian Investigative Committee; and numerous secret policy and law enforcement officials involved in this and other cases.
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Tussle Brews In Washington Over Russia Sanctions List
A tussle is brewing in Washington over who will be included on a U.S. list of sanctioned Russian officials to be published next month.
Officials with the State Department are reportedly advocating steps that would shorten the politically sensitive “Magnitsky list,” while members of Congress and NGOs who support a more sweeping list are vowing to push back.
A list of sanctioned officials is required by a law Congress passed in late 2012 designed to punish Russian officials implicated in the prosecution and death of Moscow lawyer and whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky.
The 37-year-old died in jail in 2009 after he was repeatedly denied medical care and beaten. He had been arrested after implicating officials from Russian government ministries in a complex scheme to steal $230 million from state coffers. His death became an international symbol of Russia’s rule-of-law and human rights transgressions.
In addition to slapping visa bans and asset freezes on officials connected to the Magnitsky case, the law also mandates sanctions against Russian officials who have committed other perceived gross rights violations. Those sanctions could deepen the law’s impact on U.S.-Russian relations, which have sunk in the wake of its passage.
Anticipating a furious reaction from Moscow and concerned over the legislation’s potential impact on relations, the Obama administration opposed the measures.
President Barack Obama now has until April 13 to publish the list of sanctioned officials in the federal register. He has the option of keeping some names classified for “vital national security” reasons.
The White House has given no indication of who it is considering. A list endorsed by members of Congress of officials implicated in the Magnitsky case contained about 60 names.
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Rep. James McGovern condemns Russian trial of dead lawyer
A decision by Russian authorities to go ahead with the trial of a dead lawyer is yet another example of the “endless vendetta” against him, a U.S. congressman said Monday.
A judge in Moscow has ruled that the posthumous trial of Sergei Magnitsky, who claimed to have exposed a web of corruption involving Russian officials, will proceed March 11. He has been accused of tax fraud.
“Unfortunately, the ordeal of Sergei Magnitsky did not end with his death,” said Rep. James P. McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat. “All these malevolent moves make it clear that Russian leaders recognize that they no longer have the support of the people they govern, and so they must resort to scare tactics to try and keep the lid on dissent.”
Mr. McGovern spoke at an event in Washington hosted by the Foreign Policy Initiative, Freedom House and the Institute of Modern Russia, which is led by Pavel Khodorkovsky, the son of jailed Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
“The farce of the trial of Sergei Magnitsky shows how far the regime is willing to go to protect itself,” said Guy Verhofstadt, a former prime minister of Belgium.
Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer, died in a Moscow detention center in November of 2009. He claimed that he had uncovered a $230 million tax fraud involving Russian government officials.
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MEP Leonidas Donskis: The Magnitski list as a wake-up call
The Magnitski list becomes much more than merely a benign and disconnected political fantasy. After the United States Congress adopted this law, with its clear legal and political implications, Russia retaliated by prohibiting American citizens from adopting Russian orphans – a mean, regrettable, and ugly move from Russia’s side with a total confusion of political and humanitarian agendas. Now it is a decisive time for the EU to take a stand.
That Sergei Magnitski posthumously became a litmus test of our political sensibilities and moral commitments is obvious. A brave and conscientious Russian lawyer, who exposed shocking corruption of a cleptocratic regime, and who refused to abandon his struggle by cooperating with high-ranking officers involved in this money-laundering enterprise, Magnitski reached out to the world paying the highest possible price – his own life.
The Magnitski list of the aforementioned officers, whose bank accounts and assets would be frozen, who would be denied the EU entry visa, and who, in effect, would face charges and legal prosecution for a crime, appears as a slap in the face to Putin and his regime. The official Russia is quite used to EU lecturing on the grounds of its deteriorating human rights record and severe human rights violations, as if to say that these are parallel realities – you can talk as much as you wish, yet when it comes to oil and gas, just calm down and make up your mind.
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