Posts Tagged ‘RIA Novosti’
Matvienko and Clinton discuss “Magnitsky law”
The discussion of the “Magnitsky law” in the US Senate is an attempt to influence Russian investigative and judicial institutions, the speaker of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, said at a meeting with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, RIA Novosti reports.
On Tuesday, the law about visa sanctions for the Russian bureaucrats allegedly connected to the death in prison of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009 was approved by the international committee of the
US Senate.
“We would understand if it was some universal law that would forbid the entrance to the US of state employees and bureaucrats that violate human rights. But it is obvious that the situation with
democratic development is not that bad in Russia,” Matvienko added.
According to Matvienko, Clinton promised to try to remove this amendment. займ на карту займ онлайн zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/apply-for-payday-loan-online.php микрозайм онлайн
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McCain Requests Additional Sanctions in Magnitsky Case
U.S. Republican Senator John McCain on Tuesday said he expected President Barack Obama to consider additional sanctions in the case of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death in 2009.
In his letter to Obama, McCain proposed imposing sanctions against an organized crime group he claims comprises Russian officials and bankers allegedly involved in Magnitsky’s death.
“I write you today to request that you begin a process to determine whether to designate and impose sanctions, under the authority of Executive Order 13581, against a dangerous transnational criminal organization known as the ‘Klyuev Group,’ which publicly available information suggests may have been involved in numerous international crimes,” McCain said in his letter.
“It is possible that one of those crimes was the murder of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer killed in jail in retaliation for exposing the corruption of Russian officials who appear to have been aligned with the Klyuev Group,” he said.
“Publicly available information, much of it uncovered by Mr. Magnitsky himself before his arrest in Russia in 2008, suggests that the Klyuev Group has colluded with senior Russian officials to engage in bribery, fraud, embezzlement, company thefts, and other serious financial crimes,” he said.
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Russia Will Respond to Magnitsky Bill – Putin
The measures Russia will take in response to the so-called Magnitsky Bill being passed by the U.S. Congress will depend on the final content of the bill, Russian presidential adviser Yury Ushakov said on Friday.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama discussed the Magnitsky Bill on the sidelines of the G20 Summit at Los Cabos, Mexico.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) did not perceive that issue as a kind of a stumbling block to our further cooperation, since the impresion is that the law will be passed, in some form or other. The administration seems to have put up with that and is trying to make some cosmetic changes to its content,” Ushakov said.
At the end of his meeting with Obama, Putin “quietly said there would be a reaction from the Russian side.” Asked what form this would take, Ushakov said that would depend on the final form of the bill.
Putin said that steps to bar entry to one or another person would be taken confidentially, “and not at the table in a demonstrative and declared form.”
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U.S. Senate Committee to Vote on Magnitsky List June 19
The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations will vote on its version the so-called Magnitsky List bill on June 19, according to the hearings schedule published on its website.
The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, with amendments, seeks to impose visa bans and asset freezes on the Russian officials involved in the alleged torture and murder of 37-year-old Russian anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky as well as in other gross human rights abuses in Russia.
The House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee has already approved its version of the bill and moved it to the House floor to be voted on at a later date.
The U.S. National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) has urged the Congress to oppose the legislation as it would most likely hurt U.S.-Russian trade and badly damage U.S.-Russian ties.
Magnitsky was arrested on tax evasion charges in November 2008, just days after accusing police investigators in a $230 million tax refund fraud, and died after almost a year in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center in Moscow.
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Russia to Retaliate if U.S. Passes Magnitsky Bill
Russia will take retaliatory measures if the United States replaces the Soviet-era Jackson-Vanik amendment hampering Russian-U.S. trade with new “anti-Russian laws” related to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian presidential aide said on Tuesday.
“If the new anti-Russian Magnitsky bill is passed, it would require some response measure from us,” Yury Ushakov said, adding that Moscow hoped it would not happen.
A group of influential U.S. senators, including former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, proposed in mid-March introducing a blacklist of Russian officials allegedly linked to the Hermitage Capital lawyer, Magnitsky’s death in a Moscow pre-trial detention center in November 2009, in exchange for the cancellation of the Jackson-Vanik amendment.
The Jackson-Vanik amendment, passed in 1974, barred favorable trade relations with the Soviet Union because it wouldn’t let Jewish citizens emigrate. It has been defunct for the past two decades, and both Moscow and Washington have warned that, if not repealed, it would be an obstacle to productive U.S.-Russian trade relations when Russia enters the World Trade Organization (WTO).
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Moscow Warns West Against Interfering in Magnitsky Case
Russia considers it unacceptable for other countries to interfere in its domestic court trial over the late Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky charged with tax evasion, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
Magnitsky, an anti-corruption lawyer who worked with the Hermitage Capital investment fund, died in Moscow’s infamous Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention center in November 2009, a year after he was arrested on tax evasion charges. Although he is dead, Russian prosecutors reopened the case against him earlier this year.
“The situation when ‘the Magnitsky case’ is used for political speculations and initiatives on some kind of sanctions in regard to Russia is unacceptable for us,” the ministry said in a statement.
The U.S. Department of State issued visa bans for several dozen Russian officials in connection to the Magnitsky case in July 2011. In response, Russia has also imposed travel bans on several U.S. officials.
“We hope that our foreign partners will draw correct conclusions and will abstain from actions or statements that could influence the result of the case over Magnitsky,” the statement said.
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Court Dismisses Case of Doctor Accused in Trifonova’s Death
A Moscow court has stopped a criminal case against Dr. Alexandra Artamonova, who treated businesswoman Vera Trifonova who died in a pretrial detention facility, because the statute of limitation had expired, RAPSI news agency reported on Friday.
This decision is not an admission of guilt and is not considered a criminal record.
The deaths in pretrial detention of two defendants in white-collar crime cases, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and businesswoman Vera Trifonova, sparked a public outcry. Vera Trifonova, 54, a wheelchair-bound businesswoman, was accused of fraud. She died at Matrosskaya Tishina in April 2010 after being refused medical treatment for acute diabetes and told to sleep “standing up.”
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Russia Vows to Avenge U.S. Visa Bans for Russian Officials
Russian will not leave U.S. “attempts to interfere in our domestic affairs” without response, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday, referring to visa sanctions imposed on Russian officials allegedly linked to the controversial death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow pretrial detention center.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry’s attention was drawn to statements by U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul that U.S. entry bans for some of our country’s officials in the contest of the Magnitsky case were in line with the [U.S.] administration’s policy in the human rights sphere,” Lukashevich said.
“We consider such presentation of a problem unacceptable as it runs against not only the character of Russian-U.S. relations, but also the universally accepted principle of presumption of innocence,” he added.
Moscow has “repeatedly warned that such attempts to interfere in our domestic affairs will not be left without response,” he said.
Magnitsky, an anti-corruption lawyer who worked with the Hermitage Capital investment fund, died in Moscow’s infamous Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention center in November 2009, a year after he was arrested on tax evasion charges. Shortly before his arrest, he claimed to have uncovered a massive fraud in which Moscow tax and police officials had allegedly embezzled $230 million of budget funds.
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Russia’s Civil Society ‘Beats Authorities’ in Tackling Corruption
Russia’s civil society has made a dramatic leap forward over the past three years and is doing much more to curb corruption than the authorities, Yelena Panfilova, a prominent, outgoing member of the presidential anti-corruption and human rights council, said on Wednesday.
“Russia today is not the same country it was when I joined the council three years ago; first of all, it’s about the society, not the authorities,” Panfilova, who heads Transparency International’s Russian branch, said at a news conference in Moscow marking the end of the council’s term under President Dmitry Medvedev.
Panfilova announced last week that she was not planning to continue her work with the council, which is expected to be reshuffled following the inauguration of Vladimir Putin on May 7. Several other council members also said they were going to resign.
Some observers have suggested it was their unwillingness to compromise with former KGB agent Putin that forced them to leave the council. But Panfilova downplayed the allegation on Wednesday, saying her departure was due to her desire to focus on civil activism rather than a falling out with the authorities.
“I believe that the society is doing much more, much better to counter corruption … than three years ago, and more than the authorities do,” she said.
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