Posts Tagged ‘dolgov’
Magnitsky relatives: Russian diplomat lied to EU parliament
The mother and widow of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian anti-corruption activist who died in prison, have accused a Russian diplomat of lying to the European Parliament about his case.
The women – Natalia Magnitskaya and Natalia Zharikova – spoke out in a letter on 25 February to the parliament’s subcommittee on human rights.
They said that Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian foreign ministry’s special envoy on human rights, misled MEPs at a hearing in Brussels on 20 February when he told them that Magnitsky’s own relatives want him to be tried posthumously in order to clear his name.
According to a transcript of the hearing, Dolgov said: “The court cannot close the case unless the relatives, or people who represent the interests of the deceased, make it clear that they are not against the closing of the case. The relatives of Mr Magnitsky made it absolutely clear that they are against closing the case without his acquittal.”
Russian authorities accused Magnitsky, an accountant, of financial fraud after he exposed a scam by tax officials to embezzle hundreds of millions of euros from the Russian treasury.
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Congress acts to pass landmark human rights measure in memory of murdered Russian lawyer
Three years to the day after an anti-corruption lawyer was tortured to death in Russia, a bill bearing his name and aimed at punishing human rights violators has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The so-called Sergei Magnitsky amendment, named after the lawyer who died at age 37, passed by a margin of 365 to 43 votes, bringing together hard-line Republicans and liberal Democrats.
President Vladimir Putin’s government has made clear its vehement opposition to the amendment, which the Obama administration has also opposed vigorously, fearing it will damage its ‘reset’ policy of courting Russia.
The amendment, which allows the U.S. to deny visas and freeze the assets of Russian officials believed to be connected to Magnitsky’s death, was passed on Friday as part of a broader measure to normalising trade relations with Russia.
William Browder, an American-born investor who is based in London after being expelled from Russia in 2005, has been a tireless campaigner for the measure in memory of Magnitsky, who acted for him and paid the price with his life.
Principal backers in the House have included Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, respectively among the most right-wing and liberal inthe chamber. In the Senate, liberal Ben Cardin and conservatives John McCain and Jon Kyl have banded together.
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Russia Says U.S. Human-Rights Sanctions Bill to Harm Ties
Russia warned that a U.S. bill imposing sanctions against Russian officials suspected of human- rights abuses will harm relations between the two countries.
Such a law would be “a gross interference in Russian internal affairs and, of course, it won’t have any positive effect on U.S.-Russian ties, to put it mildly,” Konstantin Dolgov, the Foreign Ministry’s human-rights representative, told reporters in Moscow today.
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has proposed legislation that would impose travel and financial restrictions on any official abusing human rights in Russia, including 60 people suspected of involvement in the death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow jail in 2009.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry last month warned it would retaliate with unspecified measures against the law. The State Department has said there is “a desire and an interest to make this a matter of law” in Congress and that the Obama administration is discussing the issue as it seeks lawmakers’ support to repeal a 1974 law that restricted trade with the former Soviet Union.
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Russia Tries to Turn Tables on Human Right
In an attempt to deflect criticism against crackdowns on political protests at home, senior Russian officials on Monday shot back at Western critics, lambasting racism and xenophobia in Europe.
Foreign Ministry and State Duma officials joined researchers and members of nongovernmental organizations in urging representatives of the European Union present at a round-table discussion not to use Russia’s human rights record as a political tool.
“The West doesn’t tolerate criticism of its own human rights violations,” said Vasily Nebenzya, head of the Foreign Ministry’s department for humanitarian cooperation and human rights.
“Human rights have become a weapon,” he said, adding that Russia would treat its critics “with mistrust when they try to teach us [to observe] human rights … as long as our concern [about human rights violations in Europe] is ignored.”
The speeches presented few figures and were very heavy with emotion and personal opinion.
Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s permanent representative to the European Union, suggested that the EU was guilty of hypocrisy for having not yet joined the 1953 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which Russia partially ratified in 1998.
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A Partial Declaration of Human Rights
For years, Russia has tolerated the State Department’s annual criticism of its human rights situation, but not anymore.
It was in April that Moscow finally lost patience. If America would not stop poking it with the human rights stick, it said (though not in precisely those words), Russia would pick up the stick, too. It appointed a human rights commissioner and promised to publish probes of its own.
Its first publication, a “Report on the situation concerning human Rights in certain states” came out last month [link in Russian]. It is extremely revealing, though not perhaps for the reasons its author, Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s new commissioner for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, intended.
“The idea is to show that problems in the sphere of human rights and democracy are present in all states. No one is ideal,” Dolgov explained to Kommersant Vlast after the report was published on the Foreign Ministry website.
“We do not accept attempts to persistently and intrusively teach us democracy. Sadly, some of our partners have used such tactics. It is of course important for them to carefully read the Russian report.”
If they do read the report, carefully or otherwise, they will find that many of its general concerns – domestic violence in Finland, detainee abuse in Britain, anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe – are identical to those in its American rival. Many of the sources are the same, too. Dolgov’s document is studded with references to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House.
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Poking with the human rights stick
Critical human rights reports from Western agencies have long been the source of consternation among Russian officials. At the end of last month, the Russian Foreign Ministry launched a counterattack, publishing a report highlighting supposed violations in the West. Oliver Bullough was surprised at how readily the document conflated issues of rights and common diplomacy.
Moscow loses patience
For years, Russia has tolerated the State Department’s annual criticism of its human rights situation, but not any more.
It was in April that Moscow finally lost patience. If America would not stop poking it with the human rights stick, it said (though not in precisely those words), Russia would pick up the stick too. It appointed a human rights commissioner and promised to publish probes of its own.
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