Posts Tagged ‘kramer’
Magnitsky Found Guilty In Posthumous Trial; Ex-Boss Also Convicted
A Moscow court has found late whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and his former boss guilty of tax evasion.
Magnitsky, who represented the Hermitage Capital investment fund, died in pretrial detention at age 37 after being allegedly beaten and denied medical treatment.
It is the first time Russia has put a dead man on trial, deepening concerns over human rights and the rule of law in the country.
Magnitsky was accused of tax evasion in 2008 after exposing a $230 million tax scam implicating Russian police and government officials. The case against him was organized by some of the same officials he exposed.
Read More →
Facebook
Twitter
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
del.icio.us
Google Bookmarks
Yahoo! Buzz
Tumblr
StumbleUpon
FriendFeed
NewsVine
Digg
Russia Using Adoption Leverage in Ireland
The Russian government has warned in a letter to Ireland’s Parliament that it may halt negotiations on an agreement for cross-border adoptions if an Irish parliamentary committee approves a resolution critical of rights abuses in Russia.
The letter signals Russia is ready to wield adoption policies as leverage to discourage Western criticism of human rights abuses in Russia with countries other than the United States, where an adoption ban took effect late last year.
The United States Congress passed the Magnitsky Law that banned travel to the United States and ordered the seizure of assets of Russian officials suspected of ties to the death in prison of the lawyer Sergei L. Magnitsky, and other officials suspected of corruption and rights abuses.
In response, Russia’s Parliament passed the Dima Yakovlev Law that bans American couples from adoption of Russian orphans. It is named for a Russian toddler who died after he had been left in a hot car by his adoptive American father.
The letter to Ireland’s lawmakers suggested Russia would proceed with this tactic despite criticism that it harms the interests of the country’s orphans, while also dashing the hopes of prospective adoptive parents abroad, who form an emotional and motivated constituency to influence elected officials. But the Kremlin, much diminished in its foreign policy reach since the end of the cold war, has few other levers of influence left.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Russia rules Magnitsky was not abused
Russian authorities, showing no signs of declaring a truce with critics at home or abroad, took a swipe at both Tuesday by ruling that no crime was committed in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer whose treatment prompted the U.S. Congress to impose sanctions on corrupt officials here.
The finding by the country’s top investigative body contradicted those of a Russian presidential commission, which concluded that Magnitsky was abused and denied medical treatment before his death, and a private investigation by his Western employer, which found evidence he had been tortured.
“He was beaten,” Valery Borshchev, a member of the presidential commission, told the Interfax news agency Tuesday. “There is a death certificate stating that he had sustained a closed head injury.”
Borshchev said he would demand a new investigation. “This defiant act threatens basic and fundamental human rights in Russia,” he said.
Human rights and other nongovernmental organizations have been uneasily waiting to find out how they will fare in this environment. A law requiring groups that receive funds from abroad to register as foreign agents went into effect in November. Last month, President Vladimir Putin reminded the authorities that it should be enforced, according to news reports.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Across the Ocean, They Are Listening
Russian defenders of human rights and representatives of the opposition will be appearing at a conference in Washington, entitled “U.S.-EU-Russia Relations after Putin’s Crackdown.” Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the head of the Moscow-Helsinki Group (MHG), is speaking to the Congress on the candidacy of Russian officials who, in the opinion of human-rights defenders, should be included on the “Magnistky List.” Mikhail Kasyanov, a representative of the Republican Party of Russia — People’s Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS), is speaking about repressive laws adopted by the Russian Parliament. Additionally, Dmitri Gudkov, a Just Russia (Spravoross) party representative in Parliament, is asking for American assistance in “anti-corruption investigations” into overseas real estate held by Russian officials.
Appearing at today’s conference in Washington — “New Approach or Business As Usual? U.S.-EU-Russia Relations After Putin’s Crackdown” — are: Mikhail Kasyanov, a representative of RPR-PARNAS; Lyudmila Alexayeva, the head of the MHG; Dmitri Gudkov, a Parliamentary representative of the Just Russia Party; and Lilia Shevtsova, a leading researcher at the Moscow Carnegie Center. The conference is taking place in the context of the “Helsinki 2.0” process, which focuses on the issue of Russia’s fulfillment of its obligations to observe human rights and civil freedoms, which was undertaken in the framework of an agreement with the OSCE (signed in 1975 in Helsinki). Also appearing at the conference are Guy Verhofstadt, head of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) party in the European Parliament, and David Kramer, President of Freedom House.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Last-ditch effort backfires on Magnitsky
Russian lawmakers urged Congress last week to reconsider the Magnitsky bill, but so far have gotten the opposite result. If passed, the Magnitsky bill could derail US-Russian relations for years Russian Senators said.
Several members of Russia’s Senate, called the Federation Council, made a rare appearance in Washington, D.C., this past week in a last-ditch effort to convince their American peers to reconsider the controversial Magnitsky Bill—a piece of legislation that Moscow considers to be explicit interference in the internal affairs of the country.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign affairs has repeatedly warned Washington about the consequences of this legislation. The Magnitsky Bill sanctions a number of the Russian officials that the U.S. Congress has deemed responsible for or are connected to the case.
In 2008, Sergei Magnitsky said that he had uncovered a scheme that top officials from Russia’s Interior Ministry and other agencies had created a plan to defraud the Russian government. Two of the officials turned around and implicated him for tax evasion on behalf of his client, the investment firm Hermitage Capital headed by William Browder, then a longtime cheerleader for President Vladimir Putin.
Magnitsky died after a year in pre-trial detention, during which his health deteriorated dramatically; Russian investigators found he had been beaten while in prison. While the Russian government has stressed that any human rights investigations should be conducted internally, Browder has headed an international investigation of his own and become one of Putin’s fiercest critics.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
FPI and Freedom House joint event: “Toward a Democratic Russia”
Yesterday in Washington DC, the Foreign Policy Initiative and Freedom House along with Senator Ben Cardin, Senator Kelly Ayotte, Kristiina Ojuland MEP and former Russian PM Mikhail Kasyanov debated how Russia can move towards democracy in the future.
http://youtu.be/Zn9kRh-DD4I займ онлайн займ онлайн https://www.zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php unshaven girl
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Boss of slain Russian whistleblower to Haaretz: Obama administration trying to appease Putin
Ahead of the Russian President’s visit to Israel, the founder of a company that invested in Russia, and was kicked out, says the U.S. is appeasing Putin for the sake of bilateral trade ties.
While President Vladimir Putin will be heading next week to Israel for a short visit that will include unveiling the Second World War Red Army memorial in Netanya, and meeting with Israeli top officials, – in Capitol Hill, businessman Bill Browder will be lobbying hard to convince Congressmen that Russia under Putin’s third presidential term is not a country that deserves “restart” of relations, not to mention what he calls the “appeasement” of Putin’s regime.
Bill Browder, co-founder and CEO of the British Hermitage Capital Management company, invested in Russia only to be pushed out of the country. In 2009, His Moscow lawyer, 37-year-old Sergei Magnitsky, was arrested after he exposed government corruption. While in prison Magnitsky was apparently beaten to death in his cell.
Congress is currently in the process of replacing the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which linked trade relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union with the USSR’s treatment of its Jewish population, with a new law, named after Sergei Magnitsky. The Magnitsky Act is supposed to deny visas to Russian officials accused of human rights violations, and is being harshly criticized by the Kremlin, which warned that its passage would hurt relations between the two countries and could even lead to possible retaliatory steps.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
U.S. Congress holds hearings on human rights in Russia
This week the U.S. Congress held hearings on human rights in Russia. The first remarks by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), conducting the hearings, and they were pretty tough. This was not surprising, since long ago she signed a bill named for Sergey L. Magnitsky, a Russian attorney killed in police custody. This bill now has twenty-five senators supporting it in the upper house of the U.S. Congress, and may well be adopted. Further testimony was given Phillip H. Gordon, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian affairs, and Thomas O. Melia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
“Principled and Purposeful Engagement:” US Policy on Supporting Human Rights and Rule of Law in Russia
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Melia, co-chair of the Civil Society Working Group of the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, today argued for “principled and purposeful engagement” with Russia in a Senate hearing on “The State of Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Russia: U.S. Policy Options.” DAS Melia and Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon outlined the Obama Administration’s position in regard to Russia. Their testimony can be downloaded and watched here. From a civil society perspective, Freedom House Executive David Kramer, Human Rights Watch Washington Director Tom Malinowski, and President and CEO of the US-Russia Business Council, Edward Verona, testified as well; while their testimony is not yet uploaded on the Foreign Relations website, it should be up within 24 hours of this posting.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
