Posts Tagged ‘list’
US disappoints with Russia sanctions
Russian politicians have rejected the US sanctions against Russian officials. But human rights activists say the penalties for alleged human rights violations don’t go far enough.
The foreign committee of the Russian Parliament has warned that the “fresh start” in Russian-American relations, launched by US President Barack Obama, has now been “buried.” The Foreign Ministry in Moscow has also heavily criticized the Magnitsky list released by the US Treasury on Friday (12.04.2013). The blacklist of Russian officials allegedly responsible for the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was, they said, an “interference in domestic affairs.”
Following Friday’s release of the list, 18 Russian officials now face penalties for alleged human rights violations, as American authorities can freeze their bank accounts and ban the officials from entering the US. In return, Russia has imposed an entrance ban on 18 US citizens who are alleged to have participated in torture practices in Guantanamo prison, or who are said to have violated the rights of Russian citizens.
The Magnitsky Act was passed by Obama last December and was created following the death of Sergei Magnitsky, who was allegedly beaten to death in a Moscow prison in 2009. Magnitsky worked in Russia for an American law firm and was a consultant for Western investment fund Hermitage Capital. He was arrested and charged with alleged tax fraud after he shed light on a corruption scandal involving state authorities.
Breakthrough in international law
Sergei Lukashevsky is the director of the Andrei Sakharov Center in Moscow and believes that the Magnitsky Act is a breakthrough in international law. “In my view it confirms the principle that human rights must be protected regardless of state borders,” he told DW in an interview.
Lukashevsky hopes that more laws like the Magnitsky Act will be introduced, and stressed that Russia isn’t the only country failing to appropriately protect human rights. The general idea behind the Magnitsky Act must not be discredited, he added.
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Russia bans 18 Americans from country in answer to US list
Moscow listed 18 Americans who are banned from entering Russia in an announcement Saturday – a tit-for-tat measure that comes a day after Washington imposed similar sanctions. The list, which was released by the Russian Foreign Ministry, includes staffers in the Bush administration and two former commanders of Guantanamo Bay.
On Friday, the US Treasury announced financial sanctions and visa bans on 18 Russian officials, the majority of whom were implicated over the arrest and death of the corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky died in a Russian prison in 2009, after being arrested by the same officers he was investigating over a $230m fraud. He was reportedly beaten and denied medical treatment while behind bars.
The case sparked an outcry in the US and led to the passage of a controversial bill requiring Washington to impose sanctions against those deemed responsible for the Russian whistleblower’s death. The Magnitsky Act, which was signed into law last year, led to immediate counter measures by Moscow, which imposed a ban on US adoption of Russian children.
The Russian and American lists exclude senior figures, but will nonetheless further damage any chance of a “reset” on relations, which President Barack Obama has stated to be his aim.
Among those singled out by Washington for sanction are two police officers, Pavel Karpov and Artyom Kuznetsov, and a former tax official, Olga Stepanova. Magnitsky was arrested after linking the three to a tax fraud scheme. Of the 18 people named by the US Treasury, 16 are connected to the Magnitsky case. The other two were included in relation to the shooting death of a former bodyguard to the Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, and the murder of a journalist, Paul Klebnikov.
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Russia hits 18 US officials with tit-for-tat entry ban
Russia blacklisted 18 Americans on Saturday, some linked to Guantanamo detention practices, in retaliation for a US ban on Russians allegedly linked to the death of a jailed whistleblower.
Already-strained relations between the two countries chilled further as Russia hit back at what it called Washington’s “unfriendly” move that would hurt mutual trust.
Among the officials sanctioned by Russia were John Yoo, a legal aide under former president George W. Bush and author of the so-called torture memo in 2002 — that provided legal backing for harsh interrogation methods — and David Addington, who was a top adviser to ex-vice president Dick Cheney.
The list also includes two former Guantanamo prison chiefs and officials who prosecuted convicted arms smuggler Viktor Bout.
“The war of lists is not our choice, but we cannot ignore outright blackmail,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
On Friday, the US Treasury released a list barring 16 Russians allegedly linked to the death of jailed lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, as well as two Chechens tied to other alleged rights abuses, from travelling to the US or holding assets there under the 2012 Sergei Magnitsky Act.
The measure infuriated Moscow, with the foreign ministry calling the Magnitsky Act an “absurd” law that “intervenes in our domestic affairs” and “delivers a strong blow to bilateral relations.”
While the US list mostly targeted mid- and low-level interior ministry officials involved in the case against Magnitsky, Russia chose several names already known internationally due to accusations of torture.
“Unlike the American list, which is formed arbitrarily, our list primarily includes those who are implicated in legalisation of torture and perpetual detentions in Guantanamo prison, to the arrests and kidnapping of Russian citizens,” the ministry said.
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Russia bans Americans in retaliation over Magnitsky Act
Russia has banned 18 Americans, including two officials who served under President George W Bush’s administration, from entering the country, as the fall-out from the death of Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky escalates.
The US Treasury on Friday named 18 Russians who are subject to visa bans and asset freezes in the US, including 16 people connected to the case of Mr Magnitsky, who died in jail in 2009 after exposing a $230m (£149m) tax fraud, which pointed the finger at a string of Russian officials.
Mr Magnitsky was a former employee of London-based fund manager, William Browder, founder of Hermitage Capital Management, who in 1996 moved from the UK to Russia to invest in newly privatised countries in Eastern Europe only to discover large-scale financial fraud.
Russia on Saturday took revenge for the ban against its own citizens, accusing the US of “outright blackmail” and branding a law passed by America at the end of last year – the Magnitsky Act – “absurd”.
“The war of lists is not our choice, but we cannot ignore outright blackmail,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the Magnitsky Act was an intervention into its domestic affairs and had delivered a “strong blow to bilateral relations”.
Russia alleges the 18 names on its own list include people who are “implicated in legalisation of torture and perpetual detentions in Guantanamo prison, to the arrests and kidnapping of Russian citizens”.
“It’s time for Washington politicians to finally understand that there are no prospects in building relations with a country like Russia with the spirit of mentoring and undisguised dictating,” Russia’s foreign ministry said.
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U.S. Targets 18 Individuals On ‘Magnitsky List’
The United States has slapped visa bans and asset freezes on 18 individuals, most of them Russian officials, whose names have been published on the “Magnitsky list.”
The move could further strain ties between Washington and Moscow, which has vowed swift retaliation.
It could also foreshadow a struggle between the White House and the members of Congress who advocate a longer list targeting higher-ranking Russian figures.
The majority of the men and women identified — 16 — are targeted for their role in the case of whistle-blowing Moscow lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The 37-year-old Magnitsky died following nearly a year of pretrial custody after implicating Russian officials in a scheme to steal $230 million from state coffers.
His case has since become an international symbol of injustice and a marker of Russia’s troubling human-rights and rule-of-law record.
Among the mostly low- to mid-level officials sanctioned is Uzbekistan-born Oleg Silchenko. As a senior investigator in the Russian Interior Ministry, he allegedly arranged for Magnitsky’s arrest and abuse in prison in an effort to make the lawyer withdraw his allegations against ministry colleagues.
THE ‘MAGNITSKY LIST’
Lecha Bogatyryov
Aleksei Droganov
Kazbek Dukuzov
Pavel Karpov
Yelena Khimina
Dmitry Komnov
Aleksei Krivoruchko
Artyom Kuznetsov
Oleg Logunov
Andrei Pechegin
Sergei Podoprigorov
Ivan Prokopenko
Oleg Silchenko
Yelena Stashina
Olga Stepanova
Dmitry Tolchinsky
Svetlana Ukhnalyova
Natalya Vinogradova
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US risks angering Russia by publishing blacklist
Washington risked reopening a diplomatic rift with Moscow following the publication of a blacklist of Russian officials who are banned from the United States because of their alleged involvement in the death in custody of the whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Earlier in the day Moscow had warned that any decision to go ahead and release the list could damage relations between the two countries. Washington passed legislation banning the officials in December but had so far put off making the list public until now.
According to the list released last night on the Treasury’s website there are 18 officials who have been named. It was compiled in the wake of the arrest and death in custody of Mr Magnitsky, a father of two and Moscow-based lawyer who helped expose a multi-million dollar tax scam that was allegedly carried out by criminal underworld figures allied with Russian officials and police officers.
Among those included on the blacklist is Pavel Karpov, a former interior ministry police officer who is currently suing William Browder in the UK courts for libel. Mr Browder, a millionaire hedge fund manager and staunch critic of official corruption inside Russia, employed Mr Magnitsky to uncover a $230million tax scam against a series of subsidiaries that were once owned by his company Hermitage capital.
After publicly naming a number of officials Mr Magnistky was arrested for tax evasion and died nine months later in prison. His family, rights groups and Russian’s own human rights investigation body say there was evidence he was beaten in custody and denied vital medication.
Mr Browder has named Mr Karpov as one of the officials behind the scam. However the former detective has vehemently denied any involvement and has launched a libel case against him in the High Court.
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U.S. Magnitsky list penalizes 18 Russians for alleged rights abuses
The Obama administration has sanctioned 18 Russian officials for alleged violations of human rights in their country, adding new strain to the difficult U.S.-Russian relationship.
U.S. officials released the names of 18 Russian officials on Friday who they said were involved in three human rights cases, including the persecution and death of Russian whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky. The officials will be denied visas to the United states, and any U.S. financial assets they have will be frozen.
The blacklisting was carried out under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, which has become a major irritant between the United States and Russia. Russians consider the law an example of hypocritical American meddling and have already adopted a retaliatory law calling for sanctions against U.S. officials.
U.S. officials said other Russian officials were sanctioned on a separate, classified blacklist. Those officials can’t be publicly identified without threatening U.S. security, they said.
Officials in Russia said they would announce their own blacklisting of U.S. officials involved in what they see as human rights abuses, as well as lawmakers responsible for the Magnitsky act.
“We will react, and [our] U.S. partners are aware of that,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference in Switzerland.
But the American list doesn’t include the names of top Russian officials, a fact that appeared to soften the reaction in Moscow.
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US identifies alleged Russian human-rights abusers targeted for sanctions
The Treasury Department on Friday announced sanctions against 18 Russians over human rights violations, but avoided some prominent officials whose inclusion could have enflamed U.S.-Russian relations.
U.S. lawmakers who backed the sanctions viewed the list as timid while a prominent Russian lawmaker said it could have been worse. State Department officials denied that political considerations had been a factor.
The list was mandated by a law passed last year and named for Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested in 2008 for tax evasion after accusing Russian police officials of stealing $230 million in tax rebates. He died in prison the next year, allegedly after being beaten and denied medical treatment.
The list included Artem Kuznetsov and Pavel Karpov, two Russian Interior Ministry officers who put Magnitsky behind bars after he accused them of stealing $230 million from the state. Two tax officials the lawyer accused of approving the fraudulent tax refunds, and several other Interior Ministry officials accused of persecuting Magnitsky were also on the list. Absent were senior officials from President Vladimir Putin’s entourage whom some human rights advocates had hoped to see sanctioned.
Magnitsky’s former client, London-based investor William Browder, who has campaigned to bring those responsible in his death to justice, has claimed that one of those tax officials, Olga Stepanova, has bought luxury real estate in Moscow, Dubai and Montenegro and wired money through her husband’s bank accounts worth $39 million.
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Magnitsky Sanctions Listings
Magnitsky Sanctions Listings
4/12/2013
OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL
Specially Designated Nationals List Update
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has added the following names to the SDN list under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012. The newly added SDN list tag of [MAGNIT] corresponds to this new program.
The following individuals have been added to OFAC’s SDN List:
BOGATIROV, Letscha (a.k.a. BOGATYREV, Lecha; a.k.a. BOGATYRYOV, Lecha); DOB 14 Mar 1975; POB Atschkoi, Chechen Republic, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
DROGANOV, Aleksey O.; DOB 11 Oct 1975; POB Lesnoi Settlement, Pushkin Area, Moscow Region, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
DUKUZOV, Kazbek; DOB 1974; POB Urus-Martan District, Chechen Republic, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KARPOV, Pavel; DOB 27 Aug 1977; POB Moscow, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KHIMINA, Yelena; DOB 11 Sep 1953; POB Moscow, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KOMNOV, Dmitriy; DOB 17 May 1977; POB Kashira Region, Moscow, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KRIVORUCHKO, Aleksey (a.k.a. KRIVORUCHKO, Alex; a.k.a. KRIVORUCHKO, Alexei); DOB 25 Aug 1977; POB Moscow Region, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
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