Will the Snowden [affair] impact the U.S.-Russia reset?

Edward Snowden file photo

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Igor Rozin, based on Interfax – June 24, 2013) Russian experts ask how U.S.-Russia relations will be affected by the Snowden case. While the U.S. demands that Russia detain former C.I.A. agent Edward Snowden, Russian experts ask how U.S.-Russia relations will be affected by the case. Russian human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin argues […]

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Rainbow Russia

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(opendemocracy.net – Sergey Khazov – June 18, 2013) Sergey Khazov is a New Times journalist and a writer based in Moscow. What is life like for gay men and women in Russia? Sergey Khazov looks at the country’s gay infrastructure, and discovers a very fragmented picture. Until a couple of years ago homosexuality was, if not a forbidden topic (it […]

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Over 6,000 people were convicted for corruption in Russia in 2012 – newspaper

Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 19, 2013) The judicial department of the Russian Supreme Court has published statistics of punishments for corruption in 2012, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported on Wednesday. “A total of 6,014 people were convicted for corruption in 2012,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported. According to the paper, some one-third of these people were convicted for giving bribes. “It is equally illegal […]

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Russian Court Refuses To Hear Defence Witnesses In Navalnyy’s Embezzlement Trial

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(RIA Novosti – Kirov, June 18, 2013) Judge Sergey Blinov refused on Tuesday (18 June) the request of the defence that 13 witnesses, including an auditor and several experts, be summoned to court in at the Kirovles (Kirov Timber) trial, a RIA Novosti correspondent has reported from Kirov’s Leninskiy court. On Monday, defence lawyer Svetlana Davydova submitted a request for […]

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U.S. Group Slams Transfer of Jewish Texts Praised by Putin

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(RIA Novosti, WASHINGTON, June 17, 2013) ­ A New York-based Orthodox Jewish group has said it is not satisfied with Russia’s recent decision to transfer a disputed collection of Jewish religious texts to the newly built Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, a move proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to resolve the row. Moving the so-called Schneerson Library […]

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Khodorkovsky’s son says has no official info on ‘third Yukos case’

Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 17, 2013) The family of Mikhail Khodorkovsky has no information on the possible third criminal case against the former Yukos CEO. “No charges have been filed, and the Investigations Committee and the prosecutors have not sent anything yet. However, I know what they say about the questioning of experts who stated their opinion on the second […]

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Navalny says his brother’s home searched by detectives

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 17, 2013) Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, founder of Anti-Corruption Foundation, wrote on Twitter on Monday that detectives were currently searching his brother’s apartment. Interfax has been unable to obtain confirmation of Navalny’s words. In December, brothers Alexei and Oleg Navalny were charged with fraud and money laundering. “Alexei Navalny set up a limited liability company […]

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Navalny Defiant in KirovLes Testimony

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – June 18, 2013) Opposition leader Alexei Navalny took the stand in court on Monday, denying charges that he stole 10,000 cubic meters of timber from KirovLes in 2009 and saying he had tried to fight corruption at the state-owned company. Navalny, who is also a prominent anti-corruption blogger and a lawyer, began […]

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Setting the Pace for Russia, Moscow Tames Its Excesses

Moscow Traffic file photo

(Voice of America – James Brooke – June 10, 2013 – James Brooke is VOA Moscow bureau chief, covering Russia and the former USSR) Last week, an American friend of mine received two mysterious white envelopes in the mail. On opening them, he found that each contained a black and white photo of his car, each taken secretly, in the […]

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Navalny says authorities want to block his mayoral nomination

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(Interfax – June 13, 2013) Opposition activist Alexei Navalny believes that the Kirov Court hearings on the Kirovles case scheduled by the court for June 13 and 14 are aimed at blocking his nomination for Moscow mayor, said his lawyer Sergei Kobelev. The lawyer said that his client Navalny had notified him that he was supposed to attend a meeting […]

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13,000 people convicted over business-related crimes could be amnestied – official

Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 11, 2013) Around 13,000 people convicted of business-related crimes could be amnestied, Representative of the Russian Presidential Commission for Entrepreneur’s Rights, Andrei Nazarov, said during the discussion in the Civic Chamber. “Those 110,000 people about whom everyone is talking – this is the total number of people convicted for economic crimes. The expected amnesty could be […]

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Russia to Fast-Track New Online Censorship Bill

Russian Duma Building

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 12, 2013) ­ A Russian parliamentary committee approved for review a new controversial anti-piracy law dubbed “the Russian SOPA” by critics after a similar US bill. The bill will undergo on Friday the first of three required readings in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, and may be passed by mid-July, […]

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‘Blasphemy Bill’ in Effect From July

File Photo of Russian Orthodox Cathedral with Man in Religious Garb in Foreground

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 11, 2013) The controversial legislation that introduces tough penalties for offending believers’ feelings is set to come into force in July after State Duma Deputies approved a number of amendments to the bill in a third and final reading. Hefty fines and possible prison sentences for offenders from both Russia and abroad are included […]

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June 12: How Declaration of Sovereignty saved Russia

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Artem Zagorodnov, RBTH – June 12, 2013) Sergei Shakhrai, one of the authors of Russia’s constitution, explained to RBTH what really brought about the USSR’s demise, and what prevented Russia from splitting apart further. During the turbulent years of the Soviet collapse, parliamentarian Sergei Shakhrai supported the Declaration of Sovereignty, passed by parliamentary […]

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Russian prominent economist Guriyev does not want to be political refugee in France

Sergei Guriev file photo

(Interfax – June 11, 2013) Former head of the New Economic School (NES) Sergei Guriyev said that the reasons due to which he left Russia were personal and he did not intend to get the political refugee status in France. “I am not a political emigrant. I simply do not want to live in Russia. I repeat once again: [Russian […]

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Navalny Tries to Boot Judge From KirovLes Trial

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – June 11, 2013) The trial against opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his business partner Pyotr Ofitserov on embezzlement charges entered its 12th day on Monday, with the defense demanding that the judge in the case recuse himself for allegedly creating unequal conditions for the defense and prosecution. The judge, Sergei Blinov, of […]

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Navalny Judge Digs in Heels Again

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 10, 2013) The KirovLes trial judge Sergei Blinov has once again rejected motions for his removal by Alexei Navalny’s defense team who complained about procedural violations and case prejudice, a new reports said Monday. “The court has taken the decision to reject the defense’s request to remove the presiding judge,” Blinov announced, adding that […]

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Court Extends Detentions as Bolotnoye Trial Begins

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – June 7, 2013) The trial against 12 people charged with violence against police and participation in alleged mass riots in the so-called Bolotnoye case ­ a case observers say is one of the largest politically motivated trials in recent history ­ opened at the Zamoskvoretsky District Court on Thursday. More than 400 […]

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Kremlin rejects bill on amnesty for economic crimes; Why the Kremlin is not rushing to pardon 100,000 businessmen.

Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Viktor Kuzmin, RBTH – June 3, 2013) Vladimir Putin has rejected a “draft” of the parliamentary bill on amnesty for economic offenses. Authorities fear that genuine crooks and thieves might get out of jail under the pretext of improving the investment climate. When he reassumed the role of president one year ago, one […]

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Second Russian NGO fined under ‘foreign agent’ law

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Interfax – May 29, 2013) A group based 300 km northeast of Moscow has become the second Russian non-governmental organization to be fined under a controversial new law that obliges NGOs to register as “foreign agents” if they receive funding from abroad and are deemed to be involved in “political activities”, the privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 29 […]

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Suspicions Grow of 3rd Case Against Khodorkovsky

Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 31, 2013) The abrupt flight from Russia of liberal economist Sergei Guriev after he was interrogated in connection with the case against tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has rekindled suspicions that a new criminal case could be opened against Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, who are set to be freed next year. Lawyers for […]

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Moscow Court Orders Release of Opposition-Backed Businessman

Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 31, 2013) ­ Moscow’s City Court ordered the release from prison on Friday of a businessman whose freedom was among the demands of the recent opposition rallies in the Russian capital. Alexei Kozlov was given eight years in prison in 2009 for fraud and “legalization of stolen property,” or the use of illegally obtained property […]

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Head of Major College Reportedly Emigrates Under Pressure [re: Guriev]

Sergei Guriev file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – May 30, 2013) A minister said Wednesday that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s Open Government would continue to work with prominent liberal economist Sergei Guriyev despite media reports that he resigned as head of a major college and left the country under pressure from authorities. Mikhail Abyzov, the Open Government liaison holding the […]

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Kremlin Human Rights Council justifies Yukos case experts questioned by investigators [re: Guriev]

Mikhail Fedotov file photo

(Interfax – May 30, 2013) Russian economist Sergei Guriyev and other experts invited to prepare a conclusion on the Yukos case for the Presidential Human Rights Council did not do anything illegal, the council’s head Mikhail Fedotov told Interfax. “I do not see anything unlawful in the work done by Guriyev and the other experts invited by us to conduct […]

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Russia’s top liberal economist caught up in Putin purge, flees country

Sergei Guriev file photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – May 30, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s anti-corruption drive that escalated last November with the dismissal of the defence minister is starting to take on the appearance of a classic 1930s-style Stalinist purge. The latest victim is Sergei Guriev, Russia’s top liberal economist and a close associate of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who fled […]

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Memorial human rights center contests in court demand to register as foreign agent

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 29, 2013) Memorial human rights center has filed a complaint with Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court to contest the demand of a Moscow prosecutor’s office to register as a foreign agent. “Memorial states in the lawsuit that the conclusions of the prosecutor’s office on the organization’s activities are groundless and that the information, on which the request of […]

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Prison or presidency for ‘Russia’s Kennedy’? [re: Navalny]

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(opendemocracy.net – Ekaterina Loushnikov – May 25, 2013) Ekaterina Loushnikova is radio and print journalist based in the city of Kirov Charismatic opposition leader Aleksey Navalny is on trial in the provincial capital of Kirov, 900km from Moscow. He is controversially accused of stealing timber worth 16 million roubles in 2009; if found guilty, he will spend his next few […]

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Russian government seeks stricter penalties for extremism

Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – May 28, 2013) A Russian government commission has approved a draft law increasing criminal punishments for extremism-related crimes and wrongdoing by religious organizations, seeking stiffer penalties for an existing controversial extremism law. “The government legislation commission has approved for consideration a draft law establishing a legal basis for neutralizing the destructive activities of religious organizations […]

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Putin Says Amnesty Plan for Businessmen Needs Refining

Vladimir Putin file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – May 24, 2013) President Vladimir Putin, who was expected during a meeting with more than a hundred entrepreneurs on Thursday to give a nod to the State Duma to draft an amnesty act freeing thousands of imprisoned business people, said the concept needed more work, Russian television reported Thursday. Putin said at […]

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Why Navalny Will Most Likely Be Convicted

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – May 23, 2013) Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader currently on trial for fraud, has expressed certainty that he has slim chances of getting a not guilty verdict, and he is almost certainly right. The inevitability of the ruling is not due to the fact that he is such an outspoken critic of […]

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Russian human rights activist, MPs criticize anti-blasphemy bill

Duma Session file photo

(Interfax – Moscow, May 21, 2013) The head of Russia’s oldest human rights organization, the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, has said that the draft bill on the protection of believers’ feelings passed by the State Duma in the second reading (today) violates human rights and contravenes the Constitution, despite softening amendments. “This is yet another repressive bill,” Alekseyeva told […]

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Navalny Defense Aided by Kirov Governor Testimony

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(RIA Novosti – KIROV, May 22, 2013) ­ Russia’s beleaguered opposition figurehead, Alexei Navalny, was given a boost in his fight against controversial embezzlement charges on Wednesday when a regional governor testified in his favor. Navalny and a former political ally, Kirov businessman Pyotr Ofitserov, are charged with heading a criminal group that investigators say embezzled 16 million rubles’ ($500,000) […]

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Russian Church Will Never Accept Gay Marriages, Patriarch Says

Patriarch Kirill file photo

(RIA Novosti – Moscow, May 21, 2013) The Russian Orthodox Church will never recognize same-sex marriages, even though it respects people’s free choice even if it is sinful, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said on Tuesday (21 May) at a meeting with the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, Thorbjoern Jagland. “If people choose such a way of […]

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Interfax: Three-fourths of Russians insist government should ban public display of homosexuality – poll

Map of Russia

(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 17, 2013) Homophobia is rather common in Russian society and attitudes toward the LGBT community have been changing slowly throughout the past year, sociologists said. The same as a year ago, three-fourths of Russians brand gays and lesbians as morally loose (43%) or mentally deficient persons (35%). Only 12% acknowledge homosexuality’s right to existence, the Levada […]

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Moscow News: No more rainbows: anti-gay sentiment rises in Russia

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Kristen Blyth – May 20, 2013) “Homosexuality is not a perversion. Perversion is hockey on grass and ballet on ice!” reads one picket sign, held aloft by a middle-aged man. “Against all forms of discrimination,” proclaims another, held by a young woman. “My gender is my choice,” says a third. The scene was Moscow Pride. […]

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Libya catastrophe sets precedent for new type of intervention by force – Russian Constitutional Court Head

Russian Constitutional Court file photo

(Interfax – ST. PETERSBURG, May 17, 2013) The state catastrophe in Libya shows that lawful methods of resolving the issue have been substituted for use of force and this creates chaos in most parts of Africa, Russian Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin said. “Researchers and experts acknowledge a very dangerous destruction of the international legal system, more and more frequent […]

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Medvedev Vows to Revamp Legal System

Russian Constitutional Court file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – May 16, 2013) The Russian government will take a number of steps to make the country’s legal system suitable for new entrepreneurs by making the rules of doing business simple and clear, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at the International Legal Forum in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. “We’re aiming to enter the […]

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Khodorkovsky, Lebedev unlikely to be released under amnesty for economic crimes – source

Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 15, 2013) Former YUKOS Head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and former Menatep Board Chairman Platon Lebedev are unlikely to be released under amnesty for economic crimes initiated by business ombudsman Boris Titov because the two were sentenced under articles, which are included in the draft being prepared to be submitted to the Russian State Duma. “There will be […]

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Russian PM against revising international laws; praises European integration

Dmitry Medvedev file photo

(Interfax – May 15, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev believes that the basic principles of international law must not be revised even in the face of global crises, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 15 May. Speaking at the International Legal Forum in St Petersburg on the same day, Medvedev admitted that “many things that seem unshakable to us […]

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Titov Wants to Free 100,000 Jailed Entrepreneurs

Boris Titov file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 8, 2013) An initiative by business ombudsman Boris Titov to free more than 100,000 entrepreneurs serving prison sentences for white-collar crimes will be submitted to the State Duma next week, Kommersant reported Wednesday. Titov warned that many people were likely to oppose the idea, but he acknowledged that without such a measure it would […]

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How the cookie crumbles

Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(opendemocracy.net – Dmitri Travin – April 30, 2013) Dmitri Travin is Research Director at the European University in St. Petersburg’s Centre of Modernization Studies Vladimir Putin has long paid lip service to the notion that his government should address the problem of corruption. Is his new campaign for real, or will it be more of a shootout between corrupt officials […]

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Prosecutor General Chaika: Civil society’s interference in justice system’s work is unacceptable

Yury Chaika file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 27, 2013) Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika sees as unacceptable civil society’s pressure on the justice system. “Everyone should mind their own business. When a civil society institution reviews a court ruling, in my opinion, this is just unacceptable,” Chaika said taking questions from Federation Council members on Saturday. “There is nothing unusual in the fact […]

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Navalny’s Request For Further Trial Delay Rejected

Alexei Navalny file photo

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 23, 2013) KIROV, Russia — A court in Russia’s Kirov Oblast has rejected a request from anticorruption blogger Aleksei Navalny for a further delay in his trial. Navalny had asked for more time for his lawyers to examine the 28 volumes of documents associated with his case. Navalny is accused of being involved in the […]

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Court Upholds Right to Appeal Election Results

Russian Constitutional Court file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – April 23, 2013) The Constitutional Court has ruled that Russian voters should be allowed to appeal election results directly, overruling earlier judgments that permitted only political parties and candidates to dispute official vote counts in the courts. The court’s ruling, published on its official website on Monday, follows complaints by human rights […]

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Skolkovo Executive Linked to Payments to Opposition Lawmaker

Skolkovo File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – April 19, 2013) A prominent Kremlin critic in the largely rubber-stamp parliament, Ponomaryov suggested that ulterior motives lay behind Friday’s news. Investigators have accused a top manager at the government’s flagship Skolkovo Foundation of making $750,000 in improper payments to a State Duma deputy with close links to the street protest movement, […]

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Blacklists Hang Over Future of U.S.-Russia Ties

File Photo of U.S. Capitol Dome

(RIA Novosti – Carl Schreck – WASHINGTON, April 15, 2013) ­ The United States and Russia struck a conciliatory chord Monday following tit-for-tat blacklists of alleged human rights violators, but the contentious US legislation that sparked the diplomatic dust-up appears set to become a permanent fixture in ties between Washington and Moscow. “There is no sunset clause on the Magnitsky […]

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Navalny’s Taunts Led to ‘Speedy’ Investigation

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 15. 2013) Days before the much-anticipated trial of opposition leader Alexei Navalny is scheduled to begin, an Investigative Committee spokesman has suggested that Navalny’s constant criticism of the government caused investigators to “accelerate” work on the case against him. When someone “uses all his energy to bring attention to himself” and “provokes the government,” […]

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Most officials on U.S.’ Magnitsky list no longer serving in previous capacity

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 12, 2013) Most of the Russian officials added on Friday to the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals List (OFAC’s SDN list) under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 are no longer working in the positions they occupied when an investigation against Hermitage Capital lawyer […]

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Investigator Bastrykin and the search for enemies

Alexandr Bastrykin file photo

(opendemocracy.net – Richard Sakwa – April 10, 2013) Richard Sakwa is professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent, England. Among his books are Putin: Russia’s Choice (Routledge, 2nd edition, 2007) and Russian Politics and Society (Routledge, 4th edition, 2008) Alexandr Bastrykin, head of Russia’s influential Investigative Committee, is one of the most powerful individuals in the […]

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Memorial challenges prosecutors’ inspection in court

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 8, 2013) The historical and enlightenment society Memorial and human rights center Memorial filed a lawsuit on Monday with the Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court against the unscheduled inspection by prosecutors. “The Memorial center challenged the unscheduled inspection by the Moscow prosecutor’s office in court, in association with the Justice Ministry and tax experts, which began on March […]

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