Posts Tagged ‘Magnitsky’
Russian Probe Finds Hedge Fund Lawyer Was ‘Tortured, Beaten To Death’
An investigation into the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has found that police torture may have contributed to his demise, reports Russia Today.
“The documents we possess testify to the illegal use of rubber clubs,” council member and human rights defender Valery Borshchyov was quoted by Interfax. “It turns out that 8 prison employees were beating one prisoner.”
Other details noted included the delay in medical attention and wounds on the wrists that indicate Magnitsky was struggling to get free.
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London 2012 Olympics: Will Human Rights Abusers be Invited?
Dictators from oppressive regimes across the world could be welcomed to Britain for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, leaving campaigners calling on the government to put human rights higher up the agenda at the games.
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) told International Business Times U.K. that it was inviting the head of state and head of government of every participating country to the opening ceremony of London 2012 on 27 July.
Governments and leaders from countries with some of the world’s worst human rights records will attend the spectacle – unless the U.K. government steps in.
“The Olympic games is a fantastic celebration and an amazing event and it is no surprise that the world’s leaders would want to attend and some of those at the opening ceremony will represent governments with poor human rights records,” Niall Couper, Amnesty International spokesman, told IBTimes UK.
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Am I wrong on Obama’s Russia policy?
Over at Forbes, Mark Adomanis offers a critique of my recent NRO article “Why the GOP Candidates Should Talk about Russia.” He says he’s “genuinely unsure” what my “actual criticism is.” Allow me to clarify.
As much as I’d like to lay claim to a uniquely sophisticated argument that only an expert Russia watcher could possibly understand, it’s actually pretty straightforward: The Obama administration exaggerates the accomplishments of its Russia policy to offset a shortage of foreign-policy achievements in other areas. (I state this verbatim on several occasions in the article.) Basically, the piece was intended to highlight the disparity between the administration’s rhetoric and the reality of our relationship with, not Russia necessarily, but the current occupants of the Kremlin.
Adomanis seems to take issue with that. In response to my mention of the qualified nature of Moscow’s support for U.S. efforts in Afghanistan, he explains that Russia doesn’t want to end up with a permanent NATO presence in Central Asia, which the Kremlin sees as part of its “sphere of influence.” Russia will offer “sufficient assistance to ensure the Taliban cannot win,” he says, but won’t help us transform Afghanistan into an “American satrapy,” especially after the U.S. “fomented ‘colored revolutions’ all throughout the post-Soviet space.”
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Khodorkovsky Wants U.S. Visa Ban Over Yukos Lawyer Death
Former Yukos Oil Co. owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky is pressing the U.S. to impose a visa ban and freeze the assets of some 30 officials involved in the imprisonment of a company lawyer who died after being denied medical care in prison.
Vasily Aleksanyan, who had AIDS and developed cancer while in jail, was imprisoned for more than 2 1/2 years until December 2008. The European Court of Human Rights had demanded his release, saying that Russia violated several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights by denying him specialized treatment for AIDS. He died in October 2011 at the age of 39.
A group of U.S. senators last year proposed a bipartisan bill that would impose a visa ban and asset freeze on 60 Russian officials implicated in the death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow jail, as well as others guilty of human-rights violations. Four senators last month said they wouldn’t support an Obama administration effort to repeal trade restrictions against Russia without support for the legislation.
“To ensure the deaths of both Aleksanyan and Magnitsky were not in vain, actions must be taken against those responsible for the abuses of their human rights,” Khodorkovsky’s defense team said in an e-mailed statement from New York. “This is the only way to achieve some justice for victims and to dissuade further tragedies in Russia.”
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Canadian democrats appeal to Harper for help on Ukraine
Editor’s Note: The following is an open letter sent April 27 to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper from the Canadian Group for Democracy in Ukraine.
Dear Prime Minister Harper:
Again we seek your help. The deterioration of democracy in Ukraine is reaching a critical point. Canada, in large part through the good offices of your government, has been a vital critic of Ukraine’s horrendous treatment of its political opposition.
The statement by Yulia Tymoshenko on April 24th concerning her beating puts the spotlight clearly on the dangers she faces personally, and the dire consequences of no further action by the international community. We strongly support the position taken by the Canada Ukraine Foundation and the World Congress of Ukrainians in this matter.
We implore you to communicate Canada’s deep concern in the strongest possible terms.
There are meaningful expressions of concern from many other like-minded countries and grass roots–from the cancellation of the visit to Ukraine by Germany’s president, to Dutch women urging their husband to boycott the Euro 2012 vents in protest of Tymosenko’s abuses. Canada stands out as a country with particular bonds to Ukraine and it is our sincere hope that our valuable diplomatic initiatives can, and will, bear fruit.
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The Kony-ification of Pussy Riot
Pussy Riot have been found guilty of “religious hatred” for their February 21 protest at the Christ the Savior Cathedral. You can watch the offending 55 seconds that got them into so much trouble here. The case itself is troubling for many reasons. For one, Pussy Riot are clearly not expressing hatred of Orthodox Christianity, but they are protesting the Church’s close relationship to Vladimir Putin and his regime. Hating Putin is not hating religion, unless Putin is now religion in Russia.
The world wants to help, and that’s great. but that effort may actually misunderstand both Russia and its challenges in ways that are not always constructive. Pussy Riot have been turned into a cause célèbre by Western pop culture mavens. Madonna, Paul McCartney, Bjork, even Sting — who apparently learned his lessons after screwing up in Kazakhstan, where he once sold his services to a dictator — have publicly issued statements supporting the fem-punkers.
Pussy Riot are being unjustly persecuted (in a free society, they’d have been given a slap on the wrist and a fine, then let go), and that’s appropriate and good to protest. But the support movement also carries some uncomfortable echoes of the Kony 2012 campaign and its many less-infamous predecessors, repeating an unfortunate practice of activism for the sake of activism, of enthusiastic support for someone who seems to be doing the right thing without really investigating whether their methods are the best, and privileging the easy and fun over the constructive.
The Kony 2012 campaign, by an American NGO called Invisible Children, was the most successful social media effort ever. Centered around a short movie of the same name, it was meant to raise the international profile of Joseph Kony, a notorious warlord in Central Africa famous for conscripting child soldiers and other horrific atrocities. While the Western celebrity efforts around Pussy Riot don’t have the same ring of neocolonialism as the Kony 2012 videos and events — Russia was a perpetrator of colonialism and not a victim, after all — they do suffer from similar fundamental problems of commercializing political activism.
In a real way, Kony 2012 took a serious problem — warlords escaping justice in Central Africa — and turned it into an exercise in commercialism, militarism, and Western meddling. Local researchers complained about it, and a number of scholars used it as an opportunity to discuss the dos and don’t of constructive activism.
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Three cheers for the Magnitsky Act and American values
In the next few days, the House and the Senate will almost certainly vote on and pass the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act. The bill is named after a 37-year old lawyer who was tortured to death in a Moscow prison after he uncovered an elaborate scheme that had defrauded the Russian treasury of $230 million. November 16th will be the third anniversary of his death.
The Magnitsky Act would deny entry to the United States and freeze the assets and property of those individuals responsible for this embezzlement, the death of Sergei Magnitsky and its cover up, as well as any current or future abuse of human and political rights.
The anti-Putin opposition in Russia has overwhelmingly supported the Magnitsky Act. Even leftists and nationalists have been ardently in favor. Just as vehemently, the Kremlin has denounced the legislation, crying “interference in its internal affairs” and threatening an “appropriate response.”
The “interference” objection has not a leg to stand on. The legislation is directed not against Russia but against those who torment and defraud it. Moreover, Russia and the Soviet Union—to which Russia is the legal successor—are party to multiple agreements, most notably the Helsinki Act of 1976 and its subsequent iterations that explicitly make human and political rights subject to international scrutiny.
As for the Kremlin’s response, Russians on the internet have had tons of fun with it: “No more shopping trips to Moscow by the wives of US officials!” “No more Black Sea vacations for them!” “US officials will be prohibited from keeping their money in Russian banks and their children denied admissions to Russian colleges!”
Although it might precipitate a petty tit-for-tat, the Magnitsky Act is part of something far larger than mere ups and downs in U.S.-Russian relations. It is a long overdue step reaffirming the core values that guide U.S. foreign policy and advancing what is—or ought to be—one of its key, overarching geostrategic objectives: The emergence of a stable, free, and democratic Russian state at peace, in the long last, with its own people and the world. быстрые займы на карту hairy girl https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php займ на карту без отказов круглосуточно
Warning that Russia’s ‘childish’ NGO bill will harm civil society
Amnesty International has called on Russian parliamentarians to reject a bill it believes will have a chilling effect on Russian human rights defenders and civil society if it becomes law.
The so-called “Dima Yakovlev” bill introduces, among other things, further severe restrictions on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Russia, and bans the adoption of Russian children by US citizens. It is set to go through its third reading in the Russian Parliament’s Lower Chamber – the Duma – tomorrow.
The bill is named after a Russian child who died after adoption in the US and was drafted as a response to the Magnitsky Act, passed in the US this month, which introduced sanctions on alleged Russian human rights violators. Sergei Magnitsky was a lawyer who died in Russian custody and has become symbol of Russia’s violations of human rights.
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Boris and Sergei Believed in a Brighter Future for Russia
Boris Nemtsov, the Russian politician, was assassinated near the Kremlin on 27 February 2015.
Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer, uncovered the largest publicly-known corruption case in Russia involving the theft of $230 million, testified about it naming complicit officials. Sergei was arrested by some of the implicated officials, held for 358 days in pre-trial detention in torturous conditions, and killed in Russian police custody on 16 November 2009.
On the 6th anniversary of Sergei Magnitsky’s murder, 16 November 2015, the Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Awards were launched. The first Sergei Magnitsky Award for Campaigning for Democracy was awarded posthumously to Boris Nemtsov.
Statement by Bill Browder on the Sergei Magnitsky 2015 Human Rights Award for Democracy to Boris Nemtsov (presented posthumously)
Boris Nemtsov was a courageous man, and a true friend of the Magnitsky Justice campaign. He was a steadfast supporter of our initiative to impose targeted Western sanctions on Russian officials involved in human rights abuse and corruption.
Boris shamed weak Western diplomats who tried to appease the Russian leader, because he was convinced that the sanctions are the necessary, effective and morally right way to stand up to Russian official impunity.
Both Boris and Sergei were optimists and believed in a brighter future for Russia. They show us that Russia produces great people with humanity and integrity.
Their loss is a tragedy for Russia and the world.
The fact that both were killed in cold blood, and in both cases those responsible have not been brought to account, is the call for action.
We cannot bring Boris and Sergei back, but we owe it to them to carry on with our cause, to seek justice in the form of further Magnitsky sanctions on corrupt officials and human rights violators by countries around the world.
#magnitskyawards
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To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below
- Sergei Magnitsky
- Why was Sergei Magnitsky arrested?
- Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and death in prison
- President’s investigation sabotaged and going nowhere
- The corrupt officers attempt to arrest 8 lawyers
- Past crimes committed by the same corrupt officers
- Petitions requesting a real investigation into Magnitsky's death
- Worldwide reaction, calls to punish those responsible for corruption and murder
- Complaints against Lt.Col. Kuznetsov
- Complaints against Major Karpov
- Cover up
- Press about Magnitsky
- Bloggers about Magnitsky
- Corrupt officers:
- Sign petition
- Citizen investigator
- Join Justice for Magnitsky group on Facebook
- Contact us
- Sergei Magnitsky