Posts Tagged ‘visa’
U.S. puts Russian officials on visa blacklist
The U.S. State Department has quietly put Russian officials connected to the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky on a visa blacklist as Moscow threatens to curtail cooperation on Iran, North Korea, Libya and the transit of supplies for Afghanistan if the Senate passes a measure imposing even tougher sanctions for human rights abuses.
The Russian government has grown ever more infuriated by a series of international reprimands over the case of the 37-year-old lawyer who died a painful death in pretrial detention, and it has complained that other countries are interfering in its domestic affairs.
The European Parliament, Canada and the Netherlands are moving toward their own visa bans for a list of 60 Russians involved in the case. The United States, however, is the first to have an active blacklist for the Russians, although senior U.S. officials say it has fewer than 60 names.
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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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Russia: who’s next to be expelled?
Throwing out Guardian newspaper journalist Luke Harding seems to have backfired as an attempt by the Kremlin to improve Russia’s image. Harding tried to fly back to Russia on Saturday from a trip abroad but had his visa cancelled at the airport.
He is not the first westerner to be expelled from Russia, and may not be the last – business people included.
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Russian Opposition Leader Urges Western Sanctions
A prominent Russian opposition leader urged the West on Monday to refuse entry to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his top lieutenants in reaction to what he described as repression of dissent.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov spoke after spending 15 days in jail over what he called fabricated charges following an anti-government rally. His Dec. 31 arrest drew outrage in the West and prompted Amnesty International to call him a prisoner of conscience.
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Nemtsov called on the EU to impose sanctions against Vladimir Putin
Leaders of Russian “non-systemic” opposition vowed to pursue the introduction of sanctions by Western countries against the concrete of the ruling circles, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Deputy Head of Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov.
The European Parliament is discussing possible sanctions against Russian officials implicated in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and “the Khodorkovsky case, but while it was Putin and Surkov lists, according to unofficial data, there is, and the prospects of introducing sanctions themselves fairly vague.
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Russian Officials Associated with Khodorkovsky’s verdict face Prospect of Sanctions
The latest verdict to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev became one of the central items on the agenda of the first meeting of the EU Subcommittee on Human Rights. In fact, all key statements had been made throughout the West even before the meeting of the structure. President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek called the verdict a “symbol of systematic problems of the judiciary, legal nihilism, and human rights abuses in Russia.” Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, called it a “disappointment and a cause for concern.”
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