Posts Tagged ‘straw’
MPs push for Russian sanctions over lawyer death
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iKqajWCd9tALa9ONbqsofn-DWzYg?docId=CNG.ea5ac78be4756c25b0f5c61782c49ad4.201
British lawmakers on Wednesday urged the government to impose sanctions on Russian officials implicated in the death of a lawyer for a British firm who claimed to have uncovered corruption in Moscow.
MPs in Britain’s lower House of Commons backed Conservative Dominic Raab’s motion to push the government into implementing asset freezes and travel bans on those suspected of involvement in the killing of Sergei Magnitsky in Russia.
Magnitsky was working for London-based Hermitage Capital Management when he alleged that he had found evidence of corruption among senior Moscow officials.
On tabling the motion, Raab said: “Between 2007 and 2008, working for Hermitage Capital, he exposed the biggest tax fraud in Russian history, worth $230 million (175 million euros).
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Sergei Magnitsky: The British Can Do Something
This afternoon, MPs have the chance to debate a motion to introduce visa restrictions and other sanctions against around 60 named Russian officials who are alleged to have been involved in the killing of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in November 2009, as well as the criminal scam that inspired this, and the cover-up which followed.
Magnitsky was a young lawyer who discovered the following. The official documents of a firm he represented were stolen during a police raid, and then used to fraudulently re-register the company, which then illicitly claimed a $230 million tax rebate. This was paid out in a record 12 hours one Christmas Eve. The proceeds disappeared through a maze of phoney companies operating in international tax havens.
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Visas and dirty money
SERGEI MAGNITSKY was a Russian lawyer who uncovered a $230m fraud perpetrated by officials against taxpayers, and paid with his life. Since his death in prison in 2009 (he was denied medical treatment as part of an attempt to make him switch sides), campaigners, including his client, the American-born British investor Bill Browder, have been trying to get Western governments to withhold visas from the 60-odd officials involved in the fraud and his persecution.
In Britain, the former Europe minister Denis MacShane has pursued this issue hard, most recently in a debate on January 11th in which he named many of the officials concerned (something that libel-shy British media have so far been reluctant to do). Now the ball is getting another hefty kick thanks to Dominic Raab, the MP for Esher & Walton. With the support of his backbench Tory colleagues, he has instigated a “Backbench Business Debate” on the Magnitsky list on March 7. The motion is as follows:
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MPs mount campaign to ban Russian visas over Sergei Magnitsky death
Backbench MPs will on Wednesday pile pressure on the Government to ban a number of senior Russian officials from entering the UK by demanding action against those allegedly linked to the death of an anti-corruption lawyer working for a British hedge fund in Moscow.
Dominic Raab, Conservative MP for Esher & Walton, has tabled a motion for a backbench debate in the Chamber of the House of Commons, after Prime Minister’s Questions, to vote for legislation to bar visas for 60 Russians connected to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, who worked for Hermitage Capital, and to seize their assets.
The motion has the support of five former foreign ministers, including David Miliband, Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind. Others backing it include former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis and former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell. In total, 26 MPs have signed the motion.
The law would be based on similar arrangements as in the US, which has barred entry to the 60 individuals, including the Russian deputy solicitor general, the deputy interior minister, and the head of the economic espionage unit at the Federal Security Service – the successor to the KGB.
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Ministers in joint attack on Russian corruption
Three former foreign secretaries will join forces this week to condemn “corruption and impunity” in Russia ahead of the presidential election on Sunday.
David Miliband, Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind will urge the Commons to introduce travel bans and asset freezes against officials implicated in the death of a young lawyer fighting government corruption in 2009.
Mr Miliband will press the case of Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison after investigating the country’s biggest tax fraud, and make clear that he believes the episode “has rightly become a cause célèbre for what is wrong in Russia” .
In a warning shot at Vladimir Putin, days before he is expected to be returned as president, Mr Miliband will point out that “democratic spirit [in Russia is] stronger than many people thought”. The motion, put together by Dominic Raab, the Conservative MP and former Foreign Office lawyer, is backed by MPs from across the political spectrum.
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Russia warns Cameron to ‘get over’ the Litvinenko poisoning
The Kremlin has told David Cameron to abandon Britain’s “ideological obsessions” over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the dissident spy, if he wants relations with Russia to improve.
Sergei Lavrov, the Foreign Minister, issued the thinly veiled warning as Mr Cameron prepared to fly to Moscow today for the first visit by a British Prime Minister since Mr Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in London almost five years ago.
Mr Lavrov made clear that the Kremlin expected him to abandon the stance of the previous Labour Government, which imposed sanctions after Russia refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the former KGB officer accused of killing Mr Litvinenko in November 2006. Mr Lugovoy, now a member of Russia’s parliament, has denied any involvement in the crime.
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