Posts Tagged ‘ponomarev’
Visa ban?
Russian human rights activists and political opposition members have sent a new version of the controversial “Magnitsky list” to the U.S. Senate, proposing to include the names of 305 Russian officials connected to the Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Yukos case – but whether or not anything will come of this proposal remains to be seen.
According to Gazeta, ru, Russia’s Prosecutor General, Yury Chaika, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin, and Moscow city court chairman Olga Yegorova are on the list together with prosecutors and judges. The original “Magnitsky list” included names of 60 Russian officials who, along with their families, would be denied American visas for their alleged involvement in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Proposed by senator Ben Cardin, the visa restrictions went into effect in July.
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US disappoints with Russia sanctions
Russian politicians have rejected the US sanctions against Russian officials. But human rights activists say the penalties for alleged human rights violations don’t go far enough.
The foreign committee of the Russian Parliament has warned that the “fresh start” in Russian-American relations, launched by US President Barack Obama, has now been “buried.” The Foreign Ministry in Moscow has also heavily criticized the Magnitsky list released by the US Treasury on Friday (12.04.2013). The blacklist of Russian officials allegedly responsible for the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was, they said, an “interference in domestic affairs.”
Following Friday’s release of the list, 18 Russian officials now face penalties for alleged human rights violations, as American authorities can freeze their bank accounts and ban the officials from entering the US. In return, Russia has imposed an entrance ban on 18 US citizens who are alleged to have participated in torture practices in Guantanamo prison, or who are said to have violated the rights of Russian citizens.
The Magnitsky Act was passed by Obama last December and was created following the death of Sergei Magnitsky, who was allegedly beaten to death in a Moscow prison in 2009. Magnitsky worked in Russia for an American law firm and was a consultant for Western investment fund Hermitage Capital. He was arrested and charged with alleged tax fraud after he shed light on a corruption scandal involving state authorities.
Breakthrough in international law
Sergei Lukashevsky is the director of the Andrei Sakharov Center in Moscow and believes that the Magnitsky Act is a breakthrough in international law. “In my view it confirms the principle that human rights must be protected regardless of state borders,” he told DW in an interview.
Lukashevsky hopes that more laws like the Magnitsky Act will be introduced, and stressed that Russia isn’t the only country failing to appropriately protect human rights. The general idea behind the Magnitsky Act must not be discredited, he added.
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Russian activist urges UK to publish human rights blacklist
Ekho Moscow
Britain should publish the list of people barred from entering the country because of alleged abuse of human rights, executive director of the movement For Human Rights Lev Ponomarev said on the air of Ekho Moskvy radio.
“If it is a state security department [as received] initiative, it will not be public. It is important in this situation that the list be published. Otherwise there is not much point,” Ponomarev said.
In his opinion, the special list should include “all the people who handled the case of the Hermitage Capital fund lawyer Sergey Magnitskiy, who died in a pre-trial detention centre [in Moscow in 2009]”. “The judges who regularly bring in rulings on administrative detentions in Moscow should also be included there. This will create a big public response, as these are, after all, trials that are completely made to order,” Ponomarev said.
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Undermine Putin
Now is the time to undermine Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. With major protests going on in response to the recent fraudulent parliamentary elections, with Mikhail Prokhorov announcing that he is likely to challenge Putin for the presidency in the next election, and with major ferment in Russia, it is the best time to further undermine Putin’s control structure by holding human rights violators accountable. And there are several efforts underway to do just that in Congress.
Consider the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Ac
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