Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Magnitsky and The Mentality Of the Siloviki

The Moscow Times

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.