Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

We might be a small country, but we can’t allow Russia to bully us over adoptions

Irish Independent

THE Government should strongly resist Russian threats to scupper an adoption agreement between Ireland and Russia if we support sanctions against Russian officials connected with the death of a Moscow-based lawyer. The same goes for Russian warnings that trade links between Ireland and this increasingly mafia state could also be jeopardised.

The Russian authorities are trying to stop Ireland from using its current presidency of the Council of the European Union to push for the implementation of EU-wide sanctions against Russian officials suspected of being involved in the death of the whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky. The exploitation of orphaned Russian children as blackmailing bait shows how immoral the Putin regime is.

A capitulation to this kind of blackmail would amount to surrendering to a regime that pays little heed to democratic norms. Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has receded into a Stalinist-like dictatorship where human rights, freedom of expression, media plurality and political diversity have been severely eroded.

The background to this furore centres on a plucky Russian lawyer called Sergei Magnitsky. He ended up behind bars in 2008 after he uncovered what he claimed was systematic and large-scale corruption and fraud carried out by Russian officials and police officers. When Mr Magnitsky reported the theft he was arrested himself and accused of tax evasion.

Sergei Magnitsky died in a pretrial detention centre in Moscow in November 2009. The 37-year-old father of two had been held, without trial, for 358 days. According to his family and friends he died from injuries and medical problems sustained after repeated abuse and torture while in detention.