Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Russian opposition leader Yashin calls for Lithuanian support to Magnitsky act

Lithuania Tribune

The head of the Solidarity movement, one of opposition leaders Ilya Yashin, maintains he has urged Lithuanian officials and parliamentarians to support the so-called Magnitsky act in Europe.

Yashin described his meetings in Lithuania over the past week in his accounts on Twitter and Facebook on Monday.

“I am having a useful time in Vilnius. Had a meeting with Lithuania’s presidential adviser, foreign vice-minister and a group of parliamentarians. I am persuading them to support the Magnitsky act in Europe and personal sanctions against investigators and judges in the Bolotnoye case (a criminal case on opposition protest rallies on the eve Vladimir Putin’s inauguration as president). We will do our best to bar the defiant bad guys from using their real estate and bank accounts in European countries,” Yashin said on Facebook and Twitter.

Egidijus Vareikis, a member of the Lithuanian parliamentary European Affairs Committee, said the Monday’s meeting with Yashin was informal and, among other matters, addressed the Magnitsky act.

“The meeting was informal, we discussed the political situation in Russia, we had questions, I was a pre-election observer during the presidential elections (in Russia) and said that some in the West deemed it senseless to wait for Russia to become a Western country, as Putin made Russia what he needed it to be. I asked (Yashin) about his opinion on my position, and he agreed that this was what the situation actually was,” Vareikis told BNS on Tuesday.