Posts Tagged ‘EU Observer’
Dutch minister pledges EU action on murdered Russian lawyer
Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal has promised to “raise the possibility” of EU sanctions against Russian officials suspected of murdering lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Rosenthal in a formal letter to parliament dated 12 September said: “The investigation into the Magnitsky case is ongoing and Russian judicial procedure must be followed. I want to wait for the outcome of the procedure. But if there is good reason in light of the outcome, then I intend to raise the possibility of further EU-level steps.”
The letter comes in response to a Dutch parliament resolution in July calling for The Hague to penalise the officials.
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UK firm presents fresh justification for EU sanctions on Russian officials
News in Brief: UK investment firm Hermitage Capital says it has evidence of a fresh $42 million tax fraud committed by the same Russian official it believes orchestrated the murder of its former employee, Sergei Magnitsky. The news comes amid the company’s push for the EU to impose sanctions on Magnitsky’s killers. быстрые займы на карту hairy girl https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php займ онлайн на карту без отказа
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US visa ban on Russian officials poses questions for EU
The US has quietly imposed a visa ban on senior Russian officials believed to have played a part in the murder of lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, posing questions about EU handling of the affair.
A state department memo confirms that most or all of the 60 officials implicated in the Magnitsky conspiracy have been red-flagged in the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS), a database used to grant or refuse visas.
The non-public memo, dated 22 July, says: “[US secretary of state Hilary] Clinton has applied existing laws and authorities to implement the visa limitations on multiple individuals associated with the wrongful death of Sergey Magnitsky.” It adds: “Individuals included on the list … are already flagged in the visa adjudication (known as CLASS) system used by visa officers.”
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Murder case puts pressure on EU-Russia diplomacy
EU diplomacy should be guided by basic moral imperatives and open parliamentary politics, not behind-closed-doors strategising, a prominent campaigner has said.
Bill Browder, a US-born British venture capitalist who a few years ago was the biggest foreign investor on the Russian stock market, is targeting the European Parliament and national EU assemblies to make the European Council impose sanctions on Russian officials.
Browder has put together a list of 60 people in the Russian interior ministry, justice system and the secret police, the FSB, who he says tortured and murdered his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, after he exposed their multi-million-euro tax scam.
On Monday (30 May), the Russian general prosecutor in a statement said one of the top men on the list, Oleg Silchenko, committed “no violations of federal law”, in what Browder’s side called an ongoing “whitewash” that “damages the credibility” of the Russian government.
Browder, who has published hard evidence of how the Russian officials scammed the Russian taxpayer, wants the EU to impose an asset freeze and travel ban on the men and women involved.
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Stolen Russian tax money is in EU banks, US sleuth says
People responsible for the death of Russian lawyer Sergey Magnitsky have salted away stolen money in EU bank accounts, Magnitsky’s former employer has claimed.
Bill Browder, the US-born head of the UK investment firm, Hermitage Capital Management, and five of his staff have spent the past year hunting down the assets of Russian officials exposed in a €175 million tax fraud by Magnitsky shortly before he was jailed and murdered in his cell.
Browder scored a victory last week when Swiss authorities froze a number of accounts in the Credit Suisse bank following evidence brought to light by Hermiatge and broadcast on YouTube.
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Barroso-Putin tete-a-tete: three victims named
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso named three prominent victims of the Russian regime in a private conversation with the Russian leader in Brussels on Thursday (24 February).
Barroso spokesman Michael Karnitschnig said his boss called for “progress” on the cases of Sergei Magnitsky, Anna Politkovskaya and Mikhail Khodorkovsky during a tete-a-tete with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin which lasted at least 30 minutes and during which only the two men and their interpreters were in the room.
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Bereaved sons and mothers urge Barroso to be brave with Putin
With Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the EU’s Jose Manuel Barroso to spend one hour in a man-to-man talk in Brussels on Thursday (24 February), close relatives of Anna Politkovskaya, Sergei Magnitsky, Alexander Litvinenko and Mikhail Khodorkovsky told EUobserver what Mr Barroso should be asking.
Ilia Politkovsky, the son of Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent Russian journalist shot in the head outside her home on Mr Putin’s birthday in 2006, wants to know why the crime has not been solved.
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Russia defies EU diplomacy on Khodorkovsky sentence
Experts have warned that polite diplomacy alone will have zero impact on an increasingly wayward Russia as EU leaders lined up to criticise the jailing of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Thursday.
“There’s nothing anyone can say outside of Russia that has any effect on the Russians. They just laugh as we condemn their actions,” Bill Browder, the CEO of US venture capitalist firm Hermitage Capital, whose lawyer, Sergey Magnitsky, died in suspicious circumstances in a Russian prison last year, told this website shortly after the Khodorkovsky sentence.
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Accusations fly in EU vote on Russian travel ban
A u-turn by centre-right and centre-left MEPs on whether to seek an EU visa ban on Russian officials linked to the death of lawyer Sergey Magnitsky has prompted accusations about Russian lobbying in the EU parliament.
Deputies in the foreign affairs committee in November endorsed a report on EU human rights policy containing the controversial Magnitsky clause by a crushing majority of 50 votes against nil with two abstentions.
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