Posts Tagged ‘richard solash’
Could U.S. Assets Seizure Lead To Expansion Of Magnitsky Blacklist?
As shady Russian businessmen snapped up luxury apartments in New York City, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was confined to the few square meters of a Moscow jail cell. He would die there under suspicious circumstances in 2009 after revealing a scheme by government officials and associates to steal $230 million from the Russian treasury. U.S. prosecutors say the proceeds of that heist paid for the Manhattan properties.
A complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on September 10 seeks the seizure of the four Wall Street-area apartments as well as two commercial spaces. It also details the twists and turns of the fraud scheme. If approved, the seizure would be the first such move in a case that has already seen bank accounts frozen in several European countries.
But perhaps more significantly, at least for U.S.-Russian relations, the complaint names alleged beneficiaries of the fraud that are not included on the “Magnitsky list,” a U.S. blacklist of Russian officials implicated in the case. It appears, then, to offer a potent argument for those members of the U.S. Congress seeking to expand the list and push back against any hesitation by the administration of President Barack Obama over harm that might cause to ties with Moscow.
Informed congressional sources told RFE/RL that the naming of names in the complaint had “been noted” and could be used to push the administration ahead of an upcoming deadline.
The U.S. legislation establishing travel and financial sanctions in the Magnitsky case requires that the State and Treasury departments add more names to the blacklist “as new information becomes available.” The Obama administration must add names to the list by a December 14 congressional reporting deadline or justify why it hasn’t done so.
The first version of the list, published in April, implicated 16 individuals in connection with the case (plus another two implicated in other crimes). Some U.S. lawmakers had expressed disappointment that more names had not been included. It was enough, however, to elicit rage — and a retaliatory blacklist — from Moscow.
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As Russia Counterattacks, Magnitsky-List Supporters Remain Optimistic
Proponents of internationally blacklisting Russian officials implicated in the 2009 death of whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky know they face a determined foe in Moscow.
They hope to persuade other countries to follow Washington’s example in creating a “Magnitsky list,” which refuses entry to 16 officials implicated in the attorney’s prosecution and death and freezes their assets. Activists in Britain and elsewhere are urging their governments to adopt a larger list of 60 names published by the U.S. Helsinki Commission.
How much Russia wants to push back against these initiatives was on ample display on July 11 as a Russian court sought to discredit the efforts by finding Sergei Magnitsky guilty, posthumously, of tax evasion.
Similarly, the court sought to discredit the main international campaigner for Magnitsky sanctions, William Browder, by convicting him, too, of tax evasion and sentencing him in absentia to nine years in prison.
But if Moscow is again underlining its readiness to fight the list, those seeking to get more countries to adopt it say they are undeterred.
What progress the Magnitsky list proponents are making — and how high the stakes are — were equally on display this week ahead of the Russian court decision.
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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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Tussle Brews In Washington Over Russia Sanctions List
A tussle is brewing in Washington over who will be included on a U.S. list of sanctioned Russian officials to be published next month.
Officials with the State Department are reportedly advocating steps that would shorten the politically sensitive “Magnitsky list,” while members of Congress and NGOs who support a more sweeping list are vowing to push back.
A list of sanctioned officials is required by a law Congress passed in late 2012 designed to punish Russian officials implicated in the prosecution and death of Moscow lawyer and whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky.
The 37-year-old died in jail in 2009 after he was repeatedly denied medical care and beaten. He had been arrested after implicating officials from Russian government ministries in a complex scheme to steal $230 million from state coffers. His death became an international symbol of Russia’s rule-of-law and human rights transgressions.
In addition to slapping visa bans and asset freezes on officials connected to the Magnitsky case, the law also mandates sanctions against Russian officials who have committed other perceived gross rights violations. Those sanctions could deepen the law’s impact on U.S.-Russian relations, which have sunk in the wake of its passage.
Anticipating a furious reaction from Moscow and concerned over the legislation’s potential impact on relations, the Obama administration opposed the measures.
President Barack Obama now has until April 13 to publish the list of sanctioned officials in the federal register. He has the option of keeping some names classified for “vital national security” reasons.
The White House has given no indication of who it is considering. A list endorsed by members of Congress of officials implicated in the Magnitsky case contained about 60 names.
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The Magnitsky Money: From Russia…And Then What?
What if $230 million went missing and no one wanted to get it back? That is the puzzling question posed by Russia’s years of unwillingness to investigate the well-documented fraud claims made by lawyer and auditor Sergei Magnitsky.
At least half a dozen European Union countries, plus Switzerland, have been looking into where the so-called Magnitsky money might have gone. But Russia has done virtually nothing to investigate the allegations and documentation that Magnitsky brought to authorities before his death in pretrial detention in 2009.
Earlier this month, attention was focused on Moldova, which is looking into a complaint filed in June 2012 by Hermitage Capital Management, the firm that Magnitsky represented and which was also an alleged victim of the fraud.
‘Documentary Evidence’
Hermitage CEO William Browder — whom Russia has accused of fraud in an unrelated case — told RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service what he is seeking in Chisinau.
“We have given [the Moldovan authorities] documentary evidence that shows money flowing into accounts at Banca de Economii and then money flowing out from those accounts,” Browder says. “We’d like to have the information on who managed those accounts, who was responsible for opening those accounts, what kind of due diligence was done in terms of who was behind those accounts. And ultimately we’d like to have the police and the prosecutor prosecute any person in Moldova or elsewhere who was responsible for laundering this money through Moldova.”
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Push For Magnitsky Sanctions Intensifies In Europe
The battle over the Sergei Magnitsky case is moving to Europe. After being lobbied by activists for nearly three years, the U.S. Congress passed legislation in late 2012 to sanction Russian officials implicated in the prosecution and death of Magnitsky, a whistle-blowing Moscow lawyer who died in pretrial detention. The case has come to symbolize Russia’s perceived rights failings.
The U.S. law, which provides for asset freezes and visa bans on Russian officials who violate human rights, was never meant to be an end in itself. Instead, the legislation was a stepping stone to passing something similar in the European Union.
And that effort is now gaining momentum.
“Russians consider themselves, really, like a part of Europe — Europeans,” says Kristiina Ojuland, a member of the European Parliament from Estonia who has spearheaded the push. “And therefore it’s significant that Europe reacts, not only [to] the Magnitsky case, but in broader terms, reacts against this corrupt, black money that is flying into the EU countries.”
Asset freezes and visa bans in Europe would hit Russian officials considerably harder than similar sanctions in the United States. As Ojuland notes, Russian officials are fond of vacationing, shopping, and educating their children in EU countries. They are also more likely to keep money in European banks.
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U.S. Senate Lifts Russia, Moldova Trade Barriers; Passes Magnitsky Sanctions
The U.S. Senate has voted to permanently lift Cold War-era barriers to trade with Russia, a move long sought by Moscow that could increase commerce between the countries by billions of dollars.
In the same vote, senators also voted to sanction Russian officials implicated in the death of anticorruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and in other perceived gross rights violations in Russia.
Moscow has railed against that move, which has overshadowed the trade benefits to come.
The Senate’s 92-4 vote follows the passing of the bill in the U.S. House of Representatives in November. U.S. President Barack Obama is now expected to sign it into law.
When he does, Moscow will be exempted from the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which imposed trade restrictions on the Soviet Union for its policy of limiting Jewish emigration. The restrictions have been waived for nearly two decades, but remained on the books as a symbol of U.S. objections to Russia’s human rights record.
Citing the weak U.S. economy, the White House had pushed Congress to lift the restrictions and grant Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status to Russia, the world’s seventh largest economy.
The move allows the United States to take full advantage of Moscow’s August entry into the World Trade Organization, which China and Europe have already benefited from.
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Cardin Expects ‘Macho’ Russian Response To Magnitsky Bill
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty
By Richard Solash
April 19, 2012
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin (Democrat-Maryland) says he expects a “macho” response from Moscow should Congress pass legislation punishing Russian officials implicated in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
“We fully expect that there will be some reactions that are going to try to show [Russian] macho-ness rather than dealing with [human rights],” the senator said on April 19 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think-tank.
Cardin last year introduced legislation that would ban visas for and freeze the assets of some 60 Russians connected with the Magnitsky case, which has become an international symbol of Russia’s human rights failings.
The lawyer died in jail in 2009 at the age of 37 after implicating top Russian officials in a complex scheme to defraud the government.
Independent investigations have found that Magnitsky was repeatedly denied medical care and beaten before his death.
Moscow is currently prosecuting only one low-level prison official in the case, amid allegations of a cover-up.
Independent of the legislation, the U.S. State Department last year imposed visa bans on implicated Russian officials.
In response, Moscow compiled a blacklist of U.S. officials it says violated the rights of two Russian citizens, a suspected international arms trafficker and a convicted drug smuggler.
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U.S. Senate Mulls Jackson-Vanik Repeal
The U.S. Senate Committee on Finance has held a hearing to consider the permanent normalization of trade with Russia, a move that the Obama administration and business leaders are pushing for but which raises the sensitive issue of Moscow’s human rights record.
Committee Chairman Senator Max Baucus (Democrat-Montana) urged his fellow lawmakers on March 15 to repeal the Jackson-Vanik Amendment — Cold War-era legislation that denies Russia permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) — for the sake of the still-fragile U.S. economy.
Doing so, he claimed, could result in a twofold increase in the volume of U.S. exports to Russia, which are currently worth around $9 billion annually.
“If the United States passes PNTR with Russia, U.S. exports to Russia are projected to double within five years,” he said. “If Congress doesn’t pass PNTR, Russia will join the WTO anyway, and U.S. exporters will lose out to their Chinese and European competitors.”
With support from the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, Russia completed its 18-year quest for membership in the World Trade Organization last year. The Duma is set to ratify membership in the coming months.
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