Posts Tagged ‘telegraph’
‘The British government must confront Russia over human rights abuses’
An influential British businessmen has accused David Cameron of going soft on Russia and of naively treating the Kremlin with kid gloves out of a misplaced fear of Moscow.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph on the eve of the Prime Minister’s historic visit to Russia tomorrow, William Browder, the founder of UK-based Hermitage Capital Management, said the British government had shied away from tackling Russia on human rights issues and claimed that the Kremlin was laughing at Mr Cameron behind his back.
“The government needs to be realistic about dealing with Russia. But it doesn’t seem to understand its major strength in dealing with Russian officials,” Mr Browder charged.
“If they think that making nice with the Russians will solve any problems, it won’t. The Russians just laugh at anyone who is approaching them from a position of weakness.”
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Hermitage Capital calls for Russian inquiry into $330m ‘tax frauds’ uncoverred by Sergei Magnitsky
Lawyers for the London-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management have applied to the Russian authorities for an inquiry to be opened into the alleged involvement of a senior state official in suspected tax frauds worth more than $330m (£204m).
The alleged frauds were uncovered in 2008 by Sergei Magnitsky, Hermitage’s investigative lawyer whose death in custody while awaiting trial on allegedly trumped-up charges has become a national scandal.
Mr Magnitsky’s colleagues have unearthed new evidence that they claim shows the same two tax officials, Olga Stepanova and Elena Khimina green-lighted the rebates for both alleged frauds. Ms Stepanova has since been promoted to a senior post in the Russian defence ministry.
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Sergei Magnitsky charges fabricated, says Russia inquiry into Moscow lawyer’s death
In a landmark investigation into the cell death of Moscow lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, a special Kremlin commission is likely to publicly implicate members of Russia’s Interior Ministry and FSB.
The metal cage used for prisoners in courtroom No 14 at the Tverskoi regional court was empty during a recent hearing, its door wide open, when the court considered the arrest of Ivan Cherkasov, a senior executive at British investment fund Hermitage Capital.
Mr Cherkasov, who lives in London, said he has no intention of returning to face charges of tax evasion he says are false. He said his arrest was an act of revenge by members of the Russian security services.
Just days before, an independent commission set up by President Dmitry Medvedev said that the charges in the case of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky were fabricated and that Interior Ministry and FSB security service officers were at least partly responsible for Mr Magnitsky’s death in Moscow’s Butyrka prison in 2009.
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Russian police escalate case against William Browder
Lawyers for William Browder, chief executive of UK-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management, have attacked Russian police for the “flagrant misuse of the criminal justice system” in attempting to summon him to Moscow for questioning.
Mr Browder has been fighting a campaign against corrupt state officials for allegedly stealing $230m (£140m) from the Russian taxpayer and causing the death in custody of his colleague Sergei Magnitsky, a investigative lawyer.
The summons came from one of the officers accused of the alleged crimes and did not allegedly go through the proper channels.
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Fall guy in Russian fraud uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky paid $2.1m
Questions have been raised about the role played by a sawmill foreman convicted of Russia’s largest tax fraud after new papers emerged purporting to show that he received payments worth $2.1m (£1.3m) following his detention for an alleged separate kidnapping.
Victor Markelov, 43, confessed in April 2009 to a vastly complex $230m theft of taxes paid to the Russian people and was jailed for five years with no fine in an apparent attempt to draw a veil over what was becoming an embarrassing episode for senior state officials implicated in the crime.
According to claims filed with the Russian prosecutor’s office, Mr Markelov may have been paid to take the fall. Two days after being arrested for the alleged kidnapping of a company director in late 2006 and attempting to extort $20m out of his boss, Mr Markelov was transferred ownership of a company with a book value of $1m.
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Hermitage attacks leniency of Russia in tax fraud ‘cover-up’
Hermitage Capital has accused the Russian state of pressing ahead with a cover up of the biggest tax fraud in Russian history after one of the men behind the scam was given a suspiciously light sentence.
The UK-based investment fund spoke out after a Moscow court confirmed it had found 43-year-old Vyacheslav Khlebnikov, a former convicted felon, guilty of taking part in the £144m fraud.
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David Cameron tackles Russians over Hermitage lawyer death
David Cameron has said he is “deeply concerned” by the death of London-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital’s lawyer in Russian prison in 2009 and has promised to raise the case in on a state visit to the country.
In a letter written to Bill Browder, the boss of Hermitage, which was once Russia’s biggest equity fund, David Cameron said that the mystery surrounding the death of Sergei Magnitsky had “implications for the rule of law and respect for human rights in Russia”.
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We are not safe doing business in Russia
Today, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, arrives in London to meet leading British politicians and officials in a bid to revive bilateral relations, increase business ties and attract UK investors to Russia. Doubtless, there will be a good deal of talk about modernising the Russian economy and extolling the virtues of investing in it. Reference will be made to large investments made by BP, Pepsico and other multinationals as evidence of the “improving investment climate”.
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