Posts Tagged ‘moscow times’
Magnitsky and The Mentality Of the Siloviki
A new conflict broke out between the Interior Ministry and the British hedge fund Hermitage Capital when a Moscow court Wednesday ordered the arrest of Ivan Cherkasov, a Hermitage partner who has lived in Britain since 2006.
The case against Cherkasov was presented in court by Interior Ministry investigator Oleg Silchenko.
Silchenko’s involvement in this case is an affront to President Dmitry Medvedev’s efforts to attract foreign investors, clean up the police force and protect business from the extortion of “law enforcers.”
Silchenko’s name first surfaced in 2007, when he led a case against Manana Aslamazyan, then-head of Internews International in Russia. Internews trained more than 15,000 regional journalists.
Aslamazyan was caught after she passed through customs at a Moscow airport with slightly more than the limit of $10,000, which she did not declare. This minor offense is usually punishable with a small fine, but Silchenko and colleagues turned it into an attack against Internews. The NGO had to close after its financial documents were seized by investigators.
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Investigator in Magnitsky Case Asks for New Hermitage Arrest
An investigator implicated in the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has requested the arrest of another Hermitage employee, the investment fund said Tuesday.
Oleg Silchenko of the Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee has asked Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court to authorize the arrest of London-based Ivan Cherkasov, 42, in connection with the same tax evasion case that led to Magnitsky’s arrest in 2008, Hermitage said in an e-mailed statement.
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New Video of Tax Official’s $40M Fortune
Real estate in Dubai and Montenegro. Regular first-class travel. Millions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts. Russia’s second-best country house. And all made possible with an annual household salary of less than $40,000.
Those are the findings of a private investigation into the assets of Olga Stepanova — the former Moscow tax official who authorized a $230 million payment that no one disputes was embezzled.
The investigation is the latest conducted by supporters of Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in jail after accusing senior Interior Ministry officials of masterminding the $230 million fraud.
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Limiting Russia’s Sovereign Democracy
Ever since Kremlin first deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov introduced the term “sovereign democracy” in 2006, senior government officials have claimed that the West does not have a right to meddle in Russia’s domestic affairs, particularly regarding human rights issues. But according to the post-World War II paradigm governing international law, gross human rights abuses are a global concern, regardless of where they occur.
Russia’s interpretation of national sovereignty is back in the spotlight after the Western coalition started bombing Libya last month. Although the military intervention was approved by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, with Russia abstaining, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin likened it to medieval crusades and said the West should not interfere in “internal political conflicts.”
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Magnitsky Link in Tax Office Raids
Investigators on Wednesday searched the Moscow office of the Federal Tax Service and two other locations as part of a multimillion-dollar embezzlement case that could implicate officials under fire in another case — the prison death of Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Investigators believe that tax officials might have assisted a St. Petersburg-based company, ES-Kontraktstroi, to make an attempt to embezzle 2 billion rubles ($71 million) in state money under the guise of value-added tax refunds, RIA-Novosti reported.
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Putin’s Shadow and Shoelaces
There was a great joke that was popular after Dmitry Medvedev became president in 2008: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave Medvedev a car without a steering wheel. “But where is the steering wheel?” asks Medvedev. “Don’t worry,” answers Putin. “I’ll be doing the driving.”
On April Fools’ Day, Putin played this joke out in reality. He drove a Yo-Mobile, the new hybrid automobile, to Medvedev’s residence. Posing for television crews from every national channel, Putin picked up Medvedev and drove for a while with the president in the passenger’s seat.
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Businessman Linked to Magnitsky Embezzlement Case Gets Minimum Sentence
A man linked to the multibillion-ruble embezzlement scheme that late lawyer Sergei Magnitsky tried to expose was handed a minimum sentence — and not asked to pay anything back.
Vyacheslav Khlebnikov, who the Investigative Committee said in January is a businessman with a criminal record, was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement, Magnitsky’s former employer, Hermitage Capital, said in an e-mailed statement.
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Biden Lukewarm on Putin’s Visa Idea
In his final public appearance in Moscow, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday chose to ignore a stunning proposal to cancel visas between his country and Russia and instead stressed how rule of law could attract investors.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin voiced the idea of visa-free travel during talks just hours before Biden’s speech at Moscow State University to U.S. and Russian business people, State Duma lawmakers and students.
Moscow had never before brought up the issue of abolishing visas with Washington, at least at such a high level.
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Crab Mogul Fears Magnitsky’s Fate
Arkady Gontmakher, a U.S. seafood mogul under investigation in Russia for money laundering, doubts he will last long enough to see the end of his case.
“I have suffered repeated heart attacks, and I don’t know for how long my heart will last,” he told The Moscow Times on Tuesday.
Gontmakher, 53, looked tired and tense during the interview in a hotel in Moscow. The businessman, who is forbidden to leave Russia, came to the capital for a medical checkup to decide whether he needs heart surgery.
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