Posts Tagged ‘elena servettaz’
Kremlin Brutality Reined In by Magnitsky Act
The deadly Ebola epidemic and the growing menace of ISIS militants in the Middle East have swept the crisis in Ukraine off the front pages.
But renewed calls for assistance to the Kiev government of President Petro Poroshenko are sure to be heard when Congress returns for a lame duck session following the November elections.
Many Republican lawmakers are already calling for a Lend-Lease-style form of assistance to Ukraine akin to that which the U.S. provided the United Kingdom and China before America itself entered World War II.
Other members of Congress are expected to call for even tougher sanctions against the Putin regime in Moscow. Rep. Robert Pittenger, R.-N.C., chairman of House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, has even called for sanctions that “will get Mr. Putin’s colleagues in the Kremlin upset enough to convince him to change his policies, or failing that, to depose him.”
But the sanctions that hit hardest at the Kremlin are already on the books in the U.S. in the form of the Magnitsky Act. Enacted by Congress in 2013 with 84 percent of the votes in the House of Representatives and 92 percent of the Senate, and signed into law by President Obama, the Magnitsky Act specifically targets the assets within and visits to the U.S. by key people in and around the Kremlin.
The reason for imposing these sanctions is the fate of the valiant Russian for whom they are named: Sergei Magnitsky, a tax lawyer in Moscow who concluded in 2008 that the government short-changed a private corporation $5.4 billion rubles (roughly $230 million) that he charged went instead to corrupt officials.
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Russian Officials Implicated in Death of Sergei Magnitsky Could Face Sanctions
Russian officials implicated in the prosecution and death of corruption whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky could soon face new European sanctions on their travel and financial assets.
U.S. lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the Magnitsky Act in December 2012, which placed visa and asset bans on 18 Russian officials either involved in Magnitsky’s case or accused of human rights abuses.
Magnitsky died in prison in 2009 after uncovering a $230 million tax fraud by Kremlin authorities and was found guilty of tax evasion last year—a posthumous conviction that was widely condemned by human rights advocates.
European governments are now taking steps toward implementing similar sanctions in their own countries.
The Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe (PACE) passed a resolution by a wide margin last week urging Russian officials to fully investigate Magnitsky’s death. It directed member governments to enact “targeted sanctions” if Russia fails to respond adequately.
Immigration authorities in the United Kingdom have also acknowledged those linked to the Magnitsky case in their visa approval instructions.
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Washington: Europe Soon To Receive Magnitsky Law?
The pessimistic attitude clouding the American capital has been aggravated by the fiasco the “Obamacare” health insurance reform has set in place. To date, barely 10,000 Americans could sign up on the site created specifically to compare insurances and register.
Yet, at the heart of this depressed and discouraging climate are “everyday” citizens showing that one person can change the course of history. On Saturday, Nov. 16, a reception took place at 7 pm, organized by Freedom House president David J. Kramer. French-Russian journalist Elena Servettaz presented her book, “Why Europe Needs a Magnitsky Law: Should the EU Follow the U.S.?”
Servettaz, also a contributor to American and Russian media, collected contributions from 54 people involved in the Magnitsky affair. A brief recall:
About four years ago, Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer, died in a Moscow prison, beaten to death by the guards. His crime? Denouncing the biggest fiscal fraud ever committed in Russia. Even more, this fraud had been the work of state officials associated with a mafia gang (even if the distinction between the two is difficult to discern). Magnitsky, according to human rights lawyer William Browden, had noted the disappearance of $230 million owed to the state of Russia. While he wanted to get justice, he was arrested by those responsible for said embezzlement.
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EU Lawmakers Expand Effort to Sanction Russian Rights Abusers
As the US administration readies its first annual report to Congress on the implementation of the Magnitsky Act, the law imposing visa and financial sanctions on Russian human rights abusers, European legislators are preparing a strategy to move forward with their own sanctions package. Last week, the European Parliament hosted the first meeting of the Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Inter-Parliamentary Group, which brings together lawmakers from 13 countries (11 of them from the European Union) and an advisory board that includes representatives from Russia (among them, the author of this blog). The aim of the new coalition is to coordinate between the national parliaments and the European Parliament on the best way to move forward with barring Russian officials implicated in corruption and human rights violations from visiting and stowing their assets in EU member states and Canada.
The Magnitsky Act, passed by the US Congress last year with vast bipartisan majorities (365 to 43 in the House; 92 to 4 in the Senate), was, despite Kremlin assertions to the country, the most pro-Russian law ever adopted in a foreign country. With corruption and political repression being the founding pillars of Russia’s current regime, and with no independent judiciary to protect Russian citizens from abuse, external individual sanctions on those who commit these offenses are the only way to end the impunity. According to a Levada Center poll, 44 percent of Russians support US and EU visa bans on officials who engage in human rights violations, with only 21 percent opposing, and this despite constant attempts by the Putin regime to present individual sanctions against crooks and abusers as “sanctions against Russia”—an insulting equivalence for the country. Leading Russian opposition figures and human rights activists are publicly supporting the Magnitsky sanctions; many of their testimonies have been included in a new book edited by Elena Servettaz, Why Europe Needs a Magnitsky Law, which was presented in European capitals and Washington DC.
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Andy McSmith’s Diary: Magnitsky’s law will be the legacy he deserved
Next week will mark a grim anniversary, four years to the day since a Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died of ill treatment in prison because he refused to end his lone campaign to expose corrupt officials who had embezzled more than £140 million from Russian taxpayers.
Unfortunately for his persecutors, Magnitsky wrote everything down, including names. An act passed by the US Congress empowers the American government to refuse visas and freeze assets of the people on his list, but nothing prevents them coming to London, where one even tried to bring a libel case that was thrown out of court.
Today, there was a ceremony in the Commons to launch a book by a young Paris based Russian journalist, Elena Servettaz, who has collected essays from more than 50 people, including 19 from Russia or Belarus, who want more governments to pass a Magnitsky Law, something neither the UK nor the EU is keen to do.
Magnitsky’s widow, Natalya Zharikova, was there. She told me: “This book shows how many people cared about Sergei.” So was William Browder, the London based investment fund manager who hired Magnitsky to represent his firm and so feels a personal responsibility for what became of him – and who is, by the way, the grandson of Earl Browder, war time head of the American Communist Party.
The Tory MP Dominic Raab is pushing for a British Magnitsky Law. “I don’t want the henchmen of despots and dictators waltzing into this country spending their money or sending their kids to school here. That offends me,” he said.
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Andrei Sannikov: Today’s Russia threatens independence of Belarus
The leader of European Belarus civil campaign took part in a discussion in the UK parliament.
Adoption of the Magnitsky Act can become a serious precedent for applying international pressure on the governments of Russia and other countries with blatant human rights violations. The universal jurisdiction of the act is vital, Andrei Sannikov, a former Belarusian presidential candidate and leader of European Belarus civil campaign, said at a roundtable discussion held in the UK Parliament on November 14.
“The Russian authorities follow in Lukashenka’s footsteps and carry out the methodical offensive against human rights and civil liberties. The strong international pressure, also by means of such legislative initiatives as the Magnitsky Act, should become an effective tool to counter impunity of officials. We cannot close our eyes on the dangerous processes in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine,” Andrei Sannikov said. He enlisted the names of Belarusian political prisoners and emphasised the necessity of taking urgent measures to save the lives of people suffering from incredible pressure in prisons.
Answering the question about threats from Russia, Andrei Sannikov said the Russia of today poses a threat to Belarus’s independence and noted the Russian leaders still had imperial ambitions and didn’t hide them saying about Russia’s “zones of influence” and “spheres of interests”.
The event in London, which was organised by the Russia Studies Centre at The Henry Jackson Society and Hermitage Capital, was held to commemorate the third anniversary of the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian attorney who worked for Hermitage Capital Management company in 2007-2008. Sergei Magnitsky and his colleagues exposed corruption among Russian officials involved in takeovers of companies, jailing businessmen and large-scale tax evasion. Having been accused of tax frauds, Magnitsky was taken into custody and died on November 16, 2009, in notorious Matrosskaya Tishina detention centre in Moscow.
The event was attended by British prominent political and public figures – former Conservative MP Lord Norman Lamont, former minister of justice Jonathan Djanogly and Labour MP Chris Bryant; representatives of human rights groups Index on Censorship, ARTICLE 19, Reporters without Borders, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, journalists of leading UK media and university professors.
The Magnitsky Act (Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act) is expected to be adopted by the US Congress to impose sanctions, including visa restrictions, on the Russian officials suspected of having relation to the prosecution and death of Sergei Magnitsky.
The Magnitsky Act may become the foundation for the legislative aid for the democratic movement in Russia. The judicial system in Russia serves either to the authorities or to the rich. The fate of Russian opposition leaders directly depends on the adoption of the Magnitsky Act, says Natalia Pelevine, the Democratic Russia Committee head. займ срочно без отказов и проверок займ на карту без отказов круглосуточно https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php payday loan
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