Posts Tagged ‘evening standard’
Honour for journalist who helped expose high-level Russian corruption
Evening Standard
A Russian journalist has won a prestigious award for helping to expose high-level corruption in the country.
Roman Anin, who writes for the Russian daily newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was presented with the 2013 Knight International Journalism Award for his investigative reporting of a case uncovered by a lawyer who later died in police custody.
Sergei Magnitsky exposed the biggest known tax fraud in Russian history, a theft of $230 million from the national treasury by Russian officials and organised criminals, which ended up in off-shore accounts and shell companies throughout Europe.
After exposing the crime, Mr Magnitsky was arrested, tortured to retract his testimony and died in custody. Since his death, Russian authorities have exonerated all officials he named from any wrongdoing.
In 2011, three years after the crime was exposed, Mr Anin began writing a series of explosive reports about the theft uncovered by Mr Magnitsky and how the crimes continued after his death.
Four of his colleagues have been murdered but Mr Anin continued to document corruption among the Russian elite. The Knight award recognises excellent reporting that makes a difference in the lives of people around the world, said the International Centre for Journalists, which made the announcement.
Read More →
Facebook
Twitter
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
del.icio.us
Google Bookmarks
Yahoo! Buzz
Tumblr
StumbleUpon
FriendFeed
NewsVine
Digg
No defendant and no lawyers in Sergei Magnitsky trial farce
The Russian trial of a dead whistleblower was hit by new farce today as state-appointed lawyers failed to show up on day one of the case.
Sergei Magnitsky is being tried posthumously for tax evasion, a move that has led to international criticism of the Moscow authorities.
Before his death aged 37 while in detention in 2009 — which his family and friends believe was murder — he uncovered alleged £154 million corruption among the same senior interior ministry officials who ordered his arrest. The trial has already been dubbed “farcical” and “Stalinist”.
Lawyers appointed by the Russian state failed to appear. They are representing the dead man and his co-accused, William Browder, the London-based head of Hermitage Capital Investment who is being tried in his absence.
The lawyers sent a petition to the court demanding more time to prepare the defence of Mr Magnitsky. They claimed they would need until May to read 60 volumes of “evidence” against the men. The judge ruled the trial would go ahead on March 22 despite objections from lawyers representing the Russian authorities.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
From Russia with relevance
Sputnik Theatre Company specialises in bringing new Russian work to London. Next month it unravels the story of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in detention after suing Putin’s government, director Noah Birksted-Breen tells Oliver Poole.
Ask people their knowledge of Russian theatre and it is likely to begin and end with Anton Chekhov. A few may cite the works of Maxim Gorky, Mikhail Bulgakov or even Alexander Ostrovsky — but knowledge of the contemporary scene is largely non-existent.
London director Noah Birksted-Breen hopes to help correct this omission with his debut of One Hour Eighteen Minutes, one of the most relevant of modern Russian plays, in London this month.
“People generally don’t know much about Russia here,” he says. “Hopefully those who come will know more than before. Ever since 2005, there has been a tremendous number of new plays and many of them, like this one, address what is happening now.”
One Hour Eighteen Minutes is certainly set in the contemporary Russia of Pussy Riot and crackdowns on opposition protesters familiar to London audiences from watching the evening news.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
London play honours lawyer who exposed Russian fraud
A play about the last moments of an anti-corruption lawyer who challenged Moscow will be performed for the first time outside Russia.
One Hour Eighteen details the killing of Sergei Magnitsky, who challenged the authorities over a £140 million racket. The father of two was working for investment fund Hermitage Capital when he uncovered the biggest tax fraud in Russian history and pointed the finger at senior officials, police and politicians. But he was accused of fraud himself, imprisoned without trial and tortured. In 2009, a group of men beat him to death in his cell.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Human rights court condemns Russia over collapse of Yukos
Fresh concerns about the perils of doing business in Russia erupted today when the European Court of Human Rights condemned the Kremlin for its role in bringing about the collapse of oil giant Yukos.
Judges ruled that Russia’s government violated the rights of the oil major – once the biggest in Russia – which was forced into bankruptcy over a multi-billion-dollar tax claim after its boss, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was arrested in 2003.
Supporters of Khodorkovsky, who was jailed for nine years after being found guilty of six charges including tax evasion and remains in prison, claim he was the victim of a campaign by then-President Vladimir Putin to destroy a tycoon seen as a threat to his rule.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
David Cameron to pressure Russia over lawyer’s death
David Cameron has pledged to press Russia to investigate the death in custody of a lawyer who accused police of complicity in a £141 million tax fraud.
The Prime Minister, who will visit Russia this year, said he was “deeply concerned” by the death of Sergei Magnitsky, 37.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
