Posts Tagged ‘EU’
EU backs freeze on Russian assets for prison death
The European Parliament urged EU governments Thursday to freeze the assets of Russian officials involved in the death in prison of a corporate lawyer, and pressed Russia to do more to punish those who commit crimes against Kremlin critics.
The parliament also encouraged European Union states to ban visas for the officials but, after Russian lobbying in recent days, softened the language of the resolution focusing on the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
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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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Russia needs rule of law
The EU’s partnership with Russia must rest on those areas where values are shared and applied.
On 2 December, European Voice published an opinion piece on EU-Russia relations that ended with the statement that “law is Russia’s bridge to Europe” (“A simpler era in EU-Russia relations?”, 2-8 December). We could not agree more. EU-Russia relations are at a critical stage and we welcome the prospect of closer co-operation on an equal footing. But the lack of rule of law in Russia, or “legal nihilism” as President Dmitry Medvedev has called it, still poses an obstacle to meaningful and long-term economic and political co-operation.
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Russia fights to block EU’s ‘Magnitsky law’
Russia has sent a delegation to the European Parliament in an attempt to block a new law that will freeze the assets of anyone implicated in the death of the anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and ban them from travelling to member states.
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DIFFERENT ANGLE
Are you Banking any of the 60 Russians that the EU wants to Sanction?
Kenneth Rijock
Financial Crime Consultant, for World-Check
The European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has recommended to the full European Parliament, in its Human Rights Report, that it adopt sanctions against sixty Russian officials, denying them visas for the Schengen area, and freeze their assets and bank accounts within the EU. These PEPs were reportedly implicated in the illegal detention, torture and death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky last year, and the $230m tax rebate fraud involving Hermitage Capital Management.
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Russia Expresses Anger Over E.U. Visa Restrictions
New York Times
By ELLEN BARRY
MOSCOW — Russian officials responded angrily on Thursday to a proposal that would deny European visas to a list of 60 officials who have been implicated in the death of Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in pretrial detention in Moscow last year.
Konstantin I. Kosachev, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the State Duma, condemned the proposed ban as “Bolshevik tactics” and said Russia might be forced to “very harshly retaliate” if the proposal went forward.
He said such pressure “could have extremely negative consequences for the entire relationship between Russia and the European Union.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry called the move “direct interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state, and open pressure on the judicial system of the Russian Federation.”
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