Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Kadyrov Faces Sanctions Under Magnitsky Act

Moscow Times

One month after U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Magnitsky Act, it is clear that Russo-American relations have entered a difficult period.

But the dispute over Moscow’s adoption ban might mark only the beginning of the difficulties Obama is facing with the Kremlin in his second term, which officially starts with Monday’s inauguration ceremony.

The Magnitsky Law states that no later than 120 days after its Dec. 14 signing, the president must submit to Congress the names of those facing sanctions. That list is likely to contain Ramzan Kadyrov, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The Chechen leader “is on the list of Russian officials to be sanctioned, as [the commission] recommended,” the organization said in a report published on its website earlier this month.
The report argues that Kadyrov “condones or oversees” mass human rights violations and instituted a repressive state based on his religious views. “At least nine women have been killed for ‘immodest behavior’ since 2008, with Kadyrov praising the murders, and the killers did not stand trial,” it said.

Kadyrov has long been accused of involvement in murders, torture and disappearances of political opponents and human rights activists both in the country and abroad. He denies wrongdoing, and his spokesman, Alvi Karimov, reiterated Tuesday that the report’s accusations were baseless.