Posts Tagged ‘RIA Novosti’
Russia may close case against Hermitage Capital CEO
A criminal case against the head of the British hedge fund Hermitage Capital, William Browder, accused of tax evasion, may soon be closed, the Russian Kommersant business daily said on Monday.
Kommersant said that the documents on Browder’s case were sent to the head police department of Moscow’s central administrative district and Browder was removed from the international wanted list.
These changes are believed to be linked with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s order to look into the case against Sergei Magnitsky, Hermitage Capital’s lawyer who had died nine months after being placed in pre-trial detention in 2008.
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WTO: Wish, Trouble, Opportunity
Regardless of the optimism Obama’s administration radiates, it is still uncertain whether Russia will join the World Trade Organization by the end of the year. Too many problems are in one knot to be untangled in such a short time.
The first and, to a large extent, the key factor is Russia’s willingness to pursue this goal.
The most recent factor sounded during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, when Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov expressed his confidence that the remaining issues would be resolved within a few weeks. He warned that otherwise Russia’s accession to the WTO could be drawn out.
Following him, Russia’s Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina echoed this sentiment and added that authorities responsible for the negotiations “are doing their best to reach an agreement.”
However, it seems that in reality Russia is willing to enjoy the benefits of the world trade network while not ready to give any rebates required of such a multilateral membership.
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Russia short of long-term capital despite windfall oil revenues
Russia, which has accrued large international reserves from windfall oil revenues, is short of long-term capital to stimulate economic growth, experts said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last week.
“Russia really has a shortfall in long-term domestic capital that will support issues along with foreign capital,” Renaissance Insurance Group head Boris Jordan said at a roundtable discussion at the forum.
Russia has long been seeking to diversify its economy away from a dependence on on oil and gas exports, the largest source of budget revenue.
“It is quite easy to raise capital from everything connected to raw materials, oil, gas production and local monopolies,” President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Roman Trotsenko said. “It is very difficult for companies working on the open market, in a completely competitive environment, to raise capital.”
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US Senators seek to sanction human rights violators in Russia
A bipartisan bill freezing assets and blocking visas of individuals who commit gross human-rights violations against Russian rights activists was introduced in the U.S. Senate on Thursday.
The bill is sponsored by 14 senators, including one of its principal initiators, Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), co-chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, an independent U.S. government agency monitoring compliance with the Helsinki Accords.
The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011 seeks to combat what has become “a toxic atmosphere of impunity in Russia where despite occasional rhetoric from the Kremlin, the authorities have failed to follow through with meaningful action to stem rampant corruption or bring the perpetrators of numerous and high-profile crimes to justice,” Sen. Cardin said in introducing the bill.
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Swiss freeze Russian accounts over giant tax swindle
The Swiss authorities have frozen the bank accounts of Russian tax officials alleged to have pulled off Russia’s largest tax fraud, a U.S. magazine has said.
Credit Suisse accounts held by a former Moscow tax bureau head, Olga Stepanova, and her deputies were blocked at the request of Swiss prosecutors, according to an article in Barron’s Magazine.
Stepanova is alleged to have approved a $230 million tax refund in 2007 to a ring of embezzlers masquerading as representatives of subsidiaries of British investment company Hermitage Capital Management, once the leading foreign portfolio investor in Russia.
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Hermitage claims against Russian official prompt Swiss probe
Switzerland has opened a money-laundering probe against a former Russian tax official at the request of British investment company Hermitage Capital Management Ltd., the Barron’s weekly said on Thursday.
Prosecutors are investigating suspicious transactions in a number of Credit Suisse accounts opened on behalf of the husband of former tax official Olga Stepanova. Stepanova approved the refund in 2007 of $230 million to scammers impersonating Hermitage Capital.
The Russian Interior Ministry has blamed the theft on Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who first reported the theft. Magnitsky died in a Moscow pre-trial detention facility in 2009 after being refused medical treatment for pancreatitis.
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Russian rights council to issue report into Magnitsky death
An advisory council to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says it is close to finishing a report into the death in custody of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.
Magnitsky, who was defending British investment company Hermitage Capital Management against tax evasion charges, died aged 37 in a Moscow pre-trial detention facility after being refused medical treatment for pancreatitis.
“The material is almost ready,” Mikhail Fedotov, head of the president’s council on human rights and civil society, told reporters on Wednesday.
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British prime minister concerned over lack of progress in Magnitsky case
RIA Novosti
British Prime Minister David Cameron has expressed his concern over a lack of progress in the investigation into the death of Russian anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in police custody.
Magnitsky, who was defending British investment company Hermitage Capital Management against tax evasion charges, died aged 37 in a Moscow pretrial detention facility in November 2009 after being refused medical treatment for pancreatitis. The lawyer’s death provoked uproar both in Russia and abroad.
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Pro-Kremlin party leader calls MEP’s suggestions in Khodorkovsky’s case attempt to put pressure on Russia
Suggestions made by some European Parliament members in the case of Russian ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev are an attempt to put pressure on Russia, Russia’s ruling party leader Boris Gryzlov said.
Members of the European Parliament led by Estonian Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe deputy Kristiina Ojuland moved to impose economic sanctions and travel restrictions on Russian officials involved in ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s trial and conviction.
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