Posts Tagged ‘european parliament’
Civil Society Leaders Urge EU to Pass Magnitsky Sanctions
On June 5, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group in the European Parliament held a seminar on Russian political prisoners. The event took place on the eve of the “Bolotnaya Square” trial, widely viewed as politically motivated. The participants stressed the urgent need for the EU to take a firm stand with regard to human rights abuses in Russia.
The situation regarding political prisoners in Russia has been deteriorating since 2011, when unprecedented mass protests against fraudulent elections were held all over the country. A group of prominent political leaders, policy experts, and human rights activists gathered to discuss the situation at the European Parliament. They included Lyudmila Alekseeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group; Bill Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management; Anna Karetnikova of the Council of the Human Rights Center “Memorial;” Mikhail Kasyanov, co-leader of the Republican Party of Russia—People’s Freedom Party and a former Russian prime minister; Vadim Klyuvgant, a lawyer for Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Nikolai Kavkazsky; Vladimir Kara-Murza, IMR senior policy advisor and a member of the Coordinating Council of the Russian opposition; and Pavel Khodorkovsky, president of the IMR. Leonidas Donskis, a member of European Parliament and the ALDE Group spokesman on human rights, moderated the seminar. The event was also dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s upcoming 50th birthday on June 26.
In his opening remarks, Donskis noted that “the human rights saga in Europe is an interesting combination of Russian, Ukrainian, East European courage and Western organization.” After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West had high hopes for Russia, as the era of Boris Yeltsin was very promising in terms of democratic development and political freedom. But today Russia is sliding back to the “obese of Soviet legislation,” and Europe is finding itself at a crossroads: should it lower its standards for countries that play a crucial role in international trade, like China and Russia, or should it continue to apply universal standards of human rights and dignity? In Donskis’ opinion, if the standards are lowered, it will be a historic failure for Europe and a betrayal of great minds such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov, who shaped the entire discourse of human rights. The EU legislator also stressed that Russian political prisoners exist, calling Mikhail Khodorkovsky a symbolic figure in this group, and suggesting that he stopped being just a Russian political prisoner and became a European political prisoner. “As long as corruption exists as an international phenomenon, every fighter against corruption or every fighter for human rights becomes an international figure… These people fight for Europe,” Donskis observed.
Mikhail Kasyanov said there are thousands of cases of human rights abuses in Russia, and about one-third of appeals to the European Court of Human Rights are coming from Russia. But the public is largely unaware of this situation, because “there is a taboo” on discussing it. Kasyanov reminded the audience that Russia is a member of the Council of Europe, and therefore needs to abide by its obligations; Russia has signed up the European Convention on Human Rights, but is not fulfilling its provisions. The former Russian prime minister added that in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovksy and Platon Lebedev, reputable Russian lawyers and independent international experts have been clear that the evidence was fabricated, and that these two people should therefore be released. Kasyanov also recalled the case of Sergei Magnitsky and the sanctions that were imposed by the U.S. against officials involved in his death, as well as against other human rights abusers. He called for similar measures to be undertaken by the EU, emphasizing that they do not target Russia, but rather deprive criminals and human rights abusers of privileges.
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EU considers visa-ban-lite on Russian officials
The European Commission is considering a ban on visa-free travel for Russian officials linked to the alleged murder of Sergei Magnitsky.
Under the terms of a visa facilitation deal currently being discussed by Brussels and Moscow, Russian officials, who carry so called “service” passports, will no longer have to apply for visas to enter the EU’s borderless Schengen zone.
The perk is due to cover dozens of people accused of involvement in a 2008 plot to embezzle millions of euros from the Russian treasury and to kill the man who found them out – Magnitsky, a 37-year-old accountant and father of two.
US authorities found the evidence against them compelling enough to ban them from visiting the states altogether.
In Brussels, MEPs have called for a similar EU travel ban.
But Russia says they are innocent, while the European External Action Service is happy to let Moscow treat the case as an internal matter.
For their part, a group of 48 euro deputies rebelled against the situation on Tuesday (4 June).
The parliamentarians – which include senior figures from major political groups, such as German centre-right MEP Elmar Brok and Belgian Liberal Guy Verhofstadt – said in a letter to EU countries’ foreign ministers that parliament will veto the visa facilitation deal unless diplomats act.
“Under current circumstances we will be unable to support any visa facilitation agreements with Russia and will advocate the parliament to refuse its consent, unless the [EU] Council adopts an EU ‘Magnitsky Law’,” they said, by reference to the US legal ban.
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Human Rights in Russia
The Greens / European Free Alliance
The Human Rights Committee of the European Parliament held a hearing on Russia today with members of the band “Pussy Riot”, William Browder and others. Chair of the Committee, Green MEP Barbara Lochbihler and the vice chair of the Parliamentary Committee on EU-Russia Cooperation, Green MEP Werner Schulz welcomed the speakers and were deeply concerned by their contributions. Commenting after the hearing, they said:
“The hearing revealed the alarming deterioration of the human rights situation in Russia after the retaking of office by Vladimir Putin. Two representatives of Pussy Riot pointed to the increasing number of political prisoners, while the well-respected Russian judge Karinna Moskalenko described the perversion of justice in an increasingly politicaly motivated judicial process. William Browder underlined this with the example death of his assistant and Russian advocate Sergej Magnitsky, the circumstances of which are still not clear.
The European Union may not continue with its strategy of diplomatic reservation and has to assume responsibility. Therefore we demand a clear change of paradigm in European politics. The EU must commit to clear messages and demands at government level and to an active support of Russian civil society.
The political developments and human rights in Russia are on the agenda for discusison at the next EU-Russia-Summit, which will take place at the beginning of June. The dialogue on human rights must not be pushed off to one side. The growing number of political prisoners and politically motivated trials and convictions must be condemned in the strongest terms.
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Human Rights in Russia: Pussy Riot takes part in committee debate
The human rights situation in Russia is worsening, a member of the feminist punk-rock collective Pussy Riot told a Human Rights Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.
Subcommittee chair Barbara Lochbihler (Greens/EFA, DE) said “The new restrictive laws impeding the work of NGOs and human rights defenders, an increase in political prisoners and politically-motivated charges, as well as increasing harassment of LGBTI activists in Russia are particularly worrying. The EU must keep human rights at the core of EU-Russia relations and human rights violations need to be more clearly communicated when engaging with Russia”.
The Pussy Riot member argued that the human rights situation in Russia was deteriorating, and explained the case brought against her group. She also reported that Pussy Riot’s Maria Alekhina was still in prison, on hunger strike, and that her appeals were being denied even though she is the mother of a young child.
Contributors to a discussion on Russia’s laws on political prisoners included Karinna Moskalenko, of the International Protection Center, William Browder, of Hermitage Capital Management, and Veronika Szente Goldson, of Human Rights Watch.
In the chair: Barbara Lochbihler (Greens/EFA, DE) hairy women payday loan https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php https://zp-pdl.com/emergency-payday-loans.php займ на карту
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EU must take a firm stand against Russian blackmail
Reacting to news that the Russian Ambassador to Ireland has written to Irish Members of Parliament threatening to block a treaty on Irish adoptions of Russian children unless Irish parliamentarians drop a Russian-critical human rights resolution, Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE leader reacted in strong terms:
Reacting to news that the Russian Ambassador to Ireland has written to Irish Members of Parliament threatening to block a treaty on Irish adoptions of Russian children unless Irish parliamentarians drop a Russian-critical human rights resolution, Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE leader reacted in strong terms:
“Russian foreign policy once again is showing its ugly face. Blackmailing used by the Russian authorities against Ireland is unacceptable and must be met by a solid and united EU stand. The letter that the Irish Parliament received from the Russian Embassy, threatens that the passing of the Magnitsky legislation in the Dail will lead to a ban on Irish adoption of Russian children. We cannot succumb to pressure.
The European Council should not shy away from its responsibility in agreeing to an EU wide Magnitsky visa ban list. It is now also essential to have the case of Sergey Magnitsky placed on the agenda of the forthcoming EU-Russia Summit. I call on the Council and Commission Presidents and High Representative to clearly state their solidarity with the Irish Presidency in Office.”
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Why the EU needs a Magnitsky act
The European Union should show that it is prepared to act against human-rights abuses in Russia
If there is one thing that truly alarms the Russian elite, it is the prospect of being denied access to their European villas and Europe’s shops. Indeed, within hours of returning to the presidency last May Vladimir Putin passed an executive order pointedly prioritising the fight against “unilateral extraterritorial sanctions” against Russian “legal entities and individuals”.
Although he did not mention Sergei Magnitsky by name, Putin’s move was an unambiguous reference to the threat of targeted sanctions against the Russian officials identified as having played a role in the detention, torture and death of Magnitsky, a lawyer who uncovered the embezzlement of $230 million (€180m) of state money.
Putin’s executive order specifically mentioned the United States. Undeterred, seven months later Congress passed the Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act, which imposes a travel ban and asset freeze on those who were involved in the events that led to Magnitsky’s death.
Russia’s reaction was furious, expressed most evidently in a hastily adopted law banning the adoption of Russian children by US citizens.
Imagine, then, how much harsher Russia’s reaction would have been if that legislation had been passed by the European Union. For Russians, Europe is closer physically, and more significant economically than the US. Europe’s fashion, private schools and, increasingly, the certainties of its legal systems and free societies are profoundly attractive to wealthy Russians.
But the probability of a tough reaction should not dissuade the EU from doing what it should. Russia has been allowed for too long to lead and manipulate its relationship with the EU.
A European Magnitsky list would be a powerful sign of solidarity with Magnitsky’s family, and a carefully targeted affirmation of European values.
But the EU could go further still. Last October, the European Parliament voted in favour of a recommendation that called for sanctions not just against those who connived in Magnitsky’s death, but also for similar measures against those thought to be responsible for other serious human-rights violations.
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Push For Magnitsky Sanctions Intensifies In Europe
The battle over the Sergei Magnitsky case is moving to Europe. After being lobbied by activists for nearly three years, the U.S. Congress passed legislation in late 2012 to sanction Russian officials implicated in the prosecution and death of Magnitsky, a whistle-blowing Moscow lawyer who died in pretrial detention. The case has come to symbolize Russia’s perceived rights failings.
The U.S. law, which provides for asset freezes and visa bans on Russian officials who violate human rights, was never meant to be an end in itself. Instead, the legislation was a stepping stone to passing something similar in the European Union.
And that effort is now gaining momentum.
“Russians consider themselves, really, like a part of Europe — Europeans,” says Kristiina Ojuland, a member of the European Parliament from Estonia who has spearheaded the push. “And therefore it’s significant that Europe reacts, not only [to] the Magnitsky case, but in broader terms, reacts against this corrupt, black money that is flying into the EU countries.”
Asset freezes and visa bans in Europe would hit Russian officials considerably harder than similar sanctions in the United States. As Ojuland notes, Russian officials are fond of vacationing, shopping, and educating their children in EU countries. They are also more likely to keep money in European banks.
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Magnitsky relatives: Russian diplomat lied to EU parliament
The mother and widow of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian anti-corruption activist who died in prison, have accused a Russian diplomat of lying to the European Parliament about his case.
The women – Natalia Magnitskaya and Natalia Zharikova – spoke out in a letter on 25 February to the parliament’s subcommittee on human rights.
They said that Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian foreign ministry’s special envoy on human rights, misled MEPs at a hearing in Brussels on 20 February when he told them that Magnitsky’s own relatives want him to be tried posthumously in order to clear his name.
According to a transcript of the hearing, Dolgov said: “The court cannot close the case unless the relatives, or people who represent the interests of the deceased, make it clear that they are not against the closing of the case. The relatives of Mr Magnitsky made it absolutely clear that they are against closing the case without his acquittal.”
Russian authorities accused Magnitsky, an accountant, of financial fraud after he exposed a scam by tax officials to embezzle hundreds of millions of euros from the Russian treasury.
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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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