Posts Tagged ‘valentina pop’

11
February 2014

Pussy Riot: Magnitsky ‘not an isolated case’ in Putin’s jails

EU Observer

Two members of the Russian punk band “Pussy Riot” on Monday (10 February) rubbished President Vladimir Putin’s amnesty law and said prison conditions are still as inhumane as they were for Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian whistleblower who died in jail in 2009.

Speaking at a press conference in Berlin, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, who spent two years in prison for an anti-Putin punk song performed in a church, thanked all those in Europe who campaigned for their release.

“We are sitting at this table after two years in prison, but there are still people in Russia facing five-six years in prison for the same reasons as us,” 25-year old Alyokhina said through a translator.

Tolokonnikova, who is 24 years old and has a young daughter, rejected the charges and said their song did not incite religious hatred, as ruled by the judge who sentenced them.

“We want religion to be free of political influence such as the corrupt link between Partriarch Kyrill and Putin,” she said, referring to the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Released under a special presidential amnesty just before Christmas last year, the two denounced the move as a mere PR trick by Putin.

“It’s not a real amnesty, it’s a fake – just Putin trying to polish his image. The number who got released is very small,” Alyokhina said.

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20
June 2013

Latvia fines bank over Magnitsky money laundering

EU Observer

Latvia’s Financial and Capital Market Commission on Tuesday (18 June) said it has imposed a fine of 100,000 lats (€142,543) – the maximum fine under Latvian law – on a bank involved in laundering over €170 million stolen from the Russian government.

The name of the bank was not made public.

The money laundering scheme was revealed by Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who worked for Hermitage Capital Management, an investment fund specialising in Russian assets.

He died in a Russian jail in 2009 after being beaten and denied medical care.

Hermitage filed a complaint in July 2012 to Latvian authorities naming six Latvian banks that allegedly laundered funds from the illegal tax refund exposed by Magnitsky.

The Magnitsky case has caused international uproar, with the US in April imposing a travel ban on 18 Russian officials linked to the affair.

Latvia is due to adopt the euro in January 2014 and is under increased pressure from the EU to clean up its act on money laundering, especially as Russian capital may have moved from bailed-out Cyprus to the former Soviet republic.

Around half of the €17 billion deposited in Latvian banks is owned by foreigners.

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