Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Re-run election, says Gorbachev; support Russia’s democrats, says bipartisan group

Democracy Digest

The United States must speak and act in support of Russia’s pro-democracy forces, a bipartisan group insisted today.

Passing the Sergei Magnitsky Act “would send a clear message to Russian Prime Minister Putin and his United Russia party that those guilty of human rights abuses will not be able to travel to the United States or protect their corrupt gains in our financial institutions,” said a statement from the Russia Working Group.

“The Magnitsky case is one of the most emblematic examples of the breakdown of law in Russia,” says William F. Browder. “Unlike many other murder cases, where there is some plausible deniability about who pulled the trigger, here we have in such granular detail who was responsible and a chain of command that goes right up to the cabinet. Because of that, this is like a cancer that they don’t seem to be able to get rid of. And the more they try to cover up, the more this becomes the Watergate of Russia.”