RUSSIALINK: “Russia to decide on Magnitsky family’s compensation within 3 months – Justice Ministry” – Interfax

European Court of Human Rights Building file photo

MOSCOW. Aug 27 (Interfax) – The Russian Justice Ministry is studying the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)’s judgment granting 34,000 euros in compensation to the family of Hermitage Capital auditor Sergei Magnitsky; a decision on appealing this judgement will be made within three months. “The judgment has yet to take effect, therefore, the Russian Justice Ministry will decide on […]

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Putin Tells Prosecutors To Protect Rights Of Business Owners

Men Sitting Around Long Oval Boardroom Table, File Photo of FIFA Officials Meeting with Vladmir Putin

(Article text ©2019 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – March 19, 2019 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/putin-tells-prosecutors-to-protect-rights-of-business-owners/29830693.html) President Vladimir Putin has urged Russian prosecutors to protect the rights of businesspeople “with a view to improving the business climate.” Speaking to a gathering of prosecutors in Moscow on March 19, Putin said that a “more effective […]

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NEWSLINK: “How Bill Browder Became Russia’s Most Wanted Man; The hedge-fund manager has offered a fable for why the West should confront Putin” – The New Yorker/Joshua Yaffa

File Photo of William Browder Seated at Table with Microphone as Woman Listens, with Image Watermark Saying Presented by Library of Congress with U.S. House of Representatives Seal, adapted from image at house.gov

“… In 2009, Browder’s tax adviser Sergei Magnitsky testified that the Russian police and tax authorities had attempted to steal two hundred and thirty million dollars in Russian taxes paid by Browder’s Moscow-based investment firm, Hermitage Capital. Magnitsky was arrested, and died in a pretrial detention center in Moscow. In the years that followed, Browder strenuously lobbied for a law […]

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Lucy Komisar: Re: “Developments re Browder”

Kremlin and Saint Basil's File Photo

Subject: Developments re Browder Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2017 From: Lucy Komisar you might be interested in one of these 1 About the new Magnitsky List – Browder targeted a lawyer involved in the $230 million tax refund fraud ten years ago who he had ignored since then. the man was put on the list exactly 2 months after he […]

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U.S. Sanctions Are Another Gift to Putin; Far from being hurt by them, he finds them useful.

U.S. Capitol in Bright Sunlight

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – July 31, 2017) Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. Russian President Vladimir Putin tends to respond to Western sanctions in ways its authors probably didn’t anticipate: by going after those Russians who could most help […]

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Russia may take asymmetric measures against U.S. in response to ‘Magnitsky list’ expansion – Russian MP Slutsky

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

MOSCOW. Jan 10 (Interfax) – Moscow may asymmetrically react to Washington’s decision to expand the ‘Magnitsky list’ – similarly to Russia’s response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the United States, Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Leonid Slutsky said. “I would like to remind you that Russia has a law on measures of response to the Magnitsky […]

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Sanctions, economic pressure are increasingly used for political pressure – Putin

Truck at Russian Border Crossing

MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) – Russia should take into account the increase in the use of methods of economic and sanction pressure when working on its long-term economic strategy, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “Economic restrictions, pressure, and sanctions are being increasingly used for political purposes, under the guise of political purposes, often in competition. We should take these tendencies […]

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NEWSWATCH: “More of Kremlin’s Opponents Are Ending Up Dead. A Pattern That Suggests State Involvement” – New York Times

Kremlin and River

In a series of public meetings on Capitol Hill … [Vladimir] Kara-Murza, a leader in the Russian opposition, urged American lawmakers to expand economic sanctions against the Russian government under a law known as the Magnitsky Act. That would hasten political change in Russia, he argued. … in Moscow a month later, in May 2015, the changes Mr. Kara-Murza detected […]

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Russian ‘Gun-For-Hire’ Rinat Akhmetshin Lurks In Shadows Of Washington’s Lobbying World

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Mike Eckel – WASHINGTON – July 17, 2016) The hoots and jeers began the minute the movie ended and the lights went up on the seventh floor of the Newseum, a Washington museum dedicated to the free press. The film was a semifictionalized look at the story of Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian lawyer who helped uncover […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Former U.S. diplomat criticizes Canada’s ‘weakness’ on Russia” [Michael McFaul] – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

… Obama’s former ambassador to Russia says Canada is showing a ‘sign of weakness’ by not pushing ahead with a promised U.S.-style Magnitsky Act that would punish Russians deemed to be human-rights violators with visa bans and asset freezes. … McFaul, who served as the U.S. envoy to Moscow from 2012 to 2014 and before that was … Obama’s special […]

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Magnitsky’s mother asks Chaika to confirm publicized facts concerning her son

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Interfax – December 22, 2015) The mother of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died at a Moscow jail in 2009, has asked the Russian Prosecutor General, Yury Chaika, to provide evidence for the claims he made in a letter to the Kommersant daily regarding her son and the activity of the fund’s head, William Browder. “The information you disseminated […]

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‘Speaking Truth To Power:’ Pussy Riot Members Tell Congress Of Rights Abuses

File Photo of Pussy Riot Members in Courtroom Enclosure, With Man Showing Papers to One While Female Guard Looks On

(RFE/RL – Luke Johnson – WASHINGTON, May 6, 2014) Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina from the Pussy Riot art collective walked out of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting room to the snapping of cameras from the major television networks as around 20 reporters waited to hear them speak. “We have to talk about these people, we have to talk […]

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PACE Threatens European Magnitsky Act

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – January 29, 2014) The Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe, or PACE, voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve a resolution critical of Russia for its handling of the investigation into the death of Sergei Magnitsky, over the fierce objections of Russian lawmakers present for the vote. By adopting the resolution, which […]

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VIDEO: U.S. Ambassador McFaul Says No Boycott Of Sochi Olympics, Addresses U.S.-Russian Relations, Ukraine, Adoptions, other issues

Ambassador Mike McFaul file photo

Ambassador Michael McFaul, U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, addresses U.S.-Russian Relations, Ukraine, the Sochi Olympics, adoptions and other matters, in this video by RFE/RL’s Russian Service. McFaul is interviewed in Russian, with English subtitles. The video was dated December 17, 2013.

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Interfax: Moscow to respond proportionally in case Washington expands Magnitsky List – official [Matviyenko]

Valentina Matviyenko file photo

(Interfax – December 18, 2013) The so-called Magnitsky List is an utterly unfriendly step regarding Russia and Moscow will take proportionate measures if it is expanded, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said. “I think that this law is an unfriendly step regarding us and does not contribute to improving the climate in our bilateral relations with the United States. […]

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Interfax: Russia will pay U.S. “in its own coin” for expanding Magnitsky List – Russian diplomat

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Russia will answer symmetrically if the United States expands the so-called Magnitsky List, i.e. the list of Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses and subject to U.S. financial and visa sanctions under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “Decisions on putting more Russian […]

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RIA Novosti: New Battle Looms in US-Russian ‘War of Blacklists’

File Photo of U.S. Capitol Dome

WASHINGTON, December 9 (By Carl Schreck for RIA Novosti) ­ The United States and Russia face a potential renewed blacklist war as a deadline looms this week for Washington to report on controversial sanctions against alleged Russian rights abusers. The US administration has until Saturday to submit to Congress its inaugural annual report on any additions to the so-called “Magnitsky […]

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Former Prosecutor Details Violations in Magnitsky Case

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – November 28, 2013) A former senior federal prosecutor has accused her one-time colleagues of illegally intervening in the probe into the 2009 death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, as well as committing legal violations in connection with other high-profile cases. Galina Tarasova, who says she was fired from the Prosecutor General’s […]

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Browder Expects Broader Magnitsky List Sanctions for Russian Officials in U.S., Europe

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 20, 2013) The United States may publish the extended version of the “Magnitsky list” as early as next month, while Europe is expected to pass a  similar measure, Hermitage Capital investment fund president and bill supporter William Browder said. The Magnitsky Act, enacted by the U.S. Congress in December 2012 and named after late […]

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Lawmakers From 21 Countries Form Magnitsky Group

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 13, 2013) Lawmakers from 21 countries have formed a commission to promote sanctions against Russian officials implicated in the prison death of whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009. The Justice for Sergei Magnitsky commission, which was holding its inaugural meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, includes lawmakers from Canada, Britain, France, […]

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Hermitage’s Browder Wins Dismissal of Russian’s Libel Case

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Jeremy Hodges – October 14, 2013) Hermitage Capital Management founder William Browder won the dismissal of a U.K. libel case filed by a former Russian policeman accused of playing a part in the 2009 death of legal and tax adviser Sergei Magnitsky. Judge Peregrine Simon ruled that the U.K. wasn’t the right jurisdiction for the ex-policeman, […]

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Could U.S. Assets Seizure Lead To Expansion Of Magnitsky Blacklist?

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Richard Solash – WASHINGTON, September 18, 2013)  As shady Russian businessmen snapped up luxury apartments in New York, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was confined to the few square meters of a Moscow jail cell. He would die there under suspicious circumstances in 2009 after revealing a scheme by a circle of high-ranking government officials and associates to […]

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Obama as Non-Statesman

File Photo of Vladimir Putin Leaning Towards Barack Hussein Obama With Flags Behind Them

From: Wayne Merry <wmerry@earthlink.net> Subject: Obama as Non-Statesmen Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 I often criticized Bill Clinton and George W. Bush for their tendency to condescend to other countries in their public statements, and especially toward Russia, but Obama’s press conference really takes the cake.  He has learned nothing since his foolish remarks at the start of his presidency […]

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Experts differ on Russia’s likely response to US move to expand Magnitskiy list

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Interfax – July 12, 2013) Aleksey Pushkov, chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee, has warned against “whipping up” tension in relations between Russia and the USA, commenting on reports that Washington is planning to expand the Magnitskiy list after a court in Moscow found the late lawyer, Sergey Magnitskiy, and the head of the Hermitage Capital Management fund, […]

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Interfax: Moscow urges Washington not to extend Magnitsky List

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 12, 2013) The Russian Foreign Ministry has urged Washington to stow plans for an extended Magnitsky List and warned it would react sternly, given the rights abuses the United States is committing globally. “We urged the U.S. administration to demonstrate wisdom and not to take steps that would spoil the atmosphere of bilateral relations,” Russian Foreign […]

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Rights commissioner denounces Magnitsky’s postmortem conviction

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 11, 2013) Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin has denounced the postmortem conviction of late Hermitage Capital auditor Sergei Magnitsky by Moscow’s Tverskoi Court. “I object to trying people post mortem. There is an element of some ancient pagan mentality in this,” Lukin told Interfax on Thursday. “Then let’s arrange the trial of Ivan the Terrible […]

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Hermitage Capital blasts Magnitsky’s posthumous conviction

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 11, 2013) British investment fund Hermitage Capital has attacked Thursday’s posthumous conviction of its lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and in absentia conviction of its chief executive William Browder. “This trial reflects the authorities’ disrespect for fundamental international legal values and personal rights and freedoms,” Hermitage said in a statement made available to Interfax. Moscow’s Tverskoi Court convicted […]

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Human right activist supports British ban on Russians on Magnitsky List

File Photo of British Parliament Building Including Saint Stephen's Tower Containing Big Ben

(Interfax – July 9, 2013) Russian veteran human rights defender, Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) head Lyudmila Alexeyeva has supported the British ban on 60 Russians on the Magnitsky List from entering the UK. “Certainly, I would like people involved in the Magnitsky case to be punished here, in Russia. That would have displayed our wish to become a democracy, put […]

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Magnitsky-Linked Official is Suspect in Fraud Case – Report

File Photo of Man Placing Stack of Large Bills into Inside Pocket of Suitcoat

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 5, 2013) ­ A former tax inspector included on a draft version of the Magnitsky List of Russian officials banned from the United States for human rights abuses has become a suspect for Russian investigators looking into a huge tax scam, Kommersant newspaper reported Friday. Olga Tsymai, a former employee of the Federal Tax Service, […]

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Lawyer of Magnitsky’s relatives says trial of deceased auditor illegal

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Interfax – MOSCOW,. July 3, 2013) The defense team of Hermitage Capital’s auditor Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a detention facility, said that a guilty verdict within the framework of the trial in absentia of Magnitsky was needed to justify his death. “The trial is needed just for this – to tell the entire world – here, look, the court […]

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Russians to Get Access to FBI Data

FBI Headquarters Building file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – May 27, 2013) After the Boston bombings last month and ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi next February, U.S. authorities are expanding their work with the Interior Ministry by granting the Russians access to some FBI information. The development, which came during a visit by Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev to the […]

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Russian rights activists, U.S. secretary of state did not discuss Magnitsky bill, Bolotnaya case

File Photo of John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov at Separte Podiums, Kerry with a Visible Earpiece; Adapted from Photo at state.gov

(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 8, 2013) Russian human rights activists did not discuss the work of NGOs in their meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Moscow Helsinki Group Chairman Lyudmila Alekseyeva told reporters on Wednesday. “We discussed the persecution of NGOs. Kerry was impressed by our story. We did not discuss financing,” Alekseyeva said. “We did not discuss […]

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Magnitsky List ensnares Moscow, Obama and Congress

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Russia Beyond the Headlines/RIA Novosti – rbth.ru – Fyodor Lukyanov – April 24, 2013) Fyodor Lukyanov, the chairman of the Presidium of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, explains why the Magnitsky Act will have long-term consequences on U.S.-Russia relations. Conflicts associated with the Magnitsky Act are not going away any time soon. Congress will not drop the subject, […]

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Magnitsky’s Mother: ‘The List Is About People Who Must Answer For Their Actions’

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 19, 2013) The mother and widow of whistle-blowing Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky were in Washington on April 17, just days after the White House issued a blacklist of more than a dozen Russian officials implicated in Magnitsky’s prosecution and death in jail in 2009. RFE/RL’s Richard Solash spoke to Magnitsky’s mother, Natalia, at a reception […]

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Kremlin Is Hiding Behind a Blacklist

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm – April 19, 2013) Michael Bohm is opinion page editor of The Moscow Times. You would have thought that the Kremlin would have shown a little more appreciation for the fact that U.S. President Barack Obama approved only 18 minor figures for the open portion of the Magnitsky list. After all, the original […]

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Kerry Lauds US-Russia Work on ‘Big-Ticket’ Issues

File Photo of Vladimir Putin Leaning Towards Barack Hussein Obama With Flags Behind Them

(RIA Novosti -WASHINGTON, April 17, 2013) ­ US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday praised cooperation between the United States and Russia on a range of issues and said he is “hopeful” that the two countries can bolster bilateral ties despite disagreements over adoptions and human rights. “Even though there have been some bumps in the road, I am […]

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Interview: ‘Magnitsky List Is Anti-Rights Violators, Not Anti-Russia’

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 18, 2013) U.S. Representative James McGovern was one of the leading sponsors of legislation that mandated sanctions against Russians implicated in the prosecution and death of whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, spoke to RFE/RL’s Richard Solash on the sidelines of a Washington reception held on April 17 honoring the Magnitsky family. RFE/RL: […]

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Closed part of Russia’s response to Magnitsky List longer than open – source

Kremlin and Moscow Environs Aerial View

(Interfax -MOSCOW. April 16, 2013) The closed part of the list of U.S. citizens prohibited to visit Russia is longer than the open part, a source at the Russian Foreign Ministry told Interfax on Tuesday. “Concerning the Russian list, its closed part carries more names than the open one,” he said. The source said he did not know how many […]

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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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Battle of Lists ‘Caricature’ of the Cold War, Lukyanov Says

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 14, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-battle-of-lists.html) The publication of the Magnitsky List and the Russian response have prompted widespread speculation not only about the secret and supposedly much larger and possibly expandable lists attached to each but about the meaning of this exchange for the future of Russian-American relations. In an article entitled […]

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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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Washington to Release Magnitsky Blacklist Today

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 12, 2013) The Kremlin was bracing for the release late Friday of a U.S. blacklist of more than 100 Russians that could include Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. At the same time, the authorities were preparing to release their own blacklist with an equal number of U.S. citizens. Washington […]

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Lavrov: Magnitsky act ‘Russophobia’ product

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 11, 2013) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has branded the U.S. Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act as a manifestation of “the Russophobia that is traditionally present” in U.S. Congress. One of the architects of the Magnitsky act was Hermitage Capital investment fund chief executive William Browder, who “illegally hoarded a large fortune in the […]

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Obama Opens Window for Russians to Contest Magnitsky Sanctions

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(RIA Novosti – Carl Schreck – WASHINGTON, April 8, 2013) ­ Russian officials who are slapped with Magnitsky Act sanctions this week may have seen their dim prospects for recourse in US courts brighten thanks to US President Barack Obama. In what the White House called a “routine delegation” of responsibilities, Obama on Friday formally tasked the US Treasury and […]

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Russian official testifies in Magnitsky’s alleged tax evasion trial

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Interfax – April 1, 2013) A former member of the government of Russia’s Kalmykia republic has confirmed during the Sergei Magnitsky tax evasion trial that the registration of the Dalnyaya Step and Saturn Investments companies in Kalmykia as investment firms involved document forgery. Magnitsky, who was an external auditor for British investment fund Hermitage Capital and died in a Moscow […]

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Trial of Dead Lawyer Magnitsky Begins in Moscow

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

MOSCOW, March 22 (RIA Novosti) – The unprecedented posthumous trial of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky for tax evasion began on Friday as investigators denied he was arrested for uncovering major corruption by state officials. This is believed to be the first time a dead person has been prosecuted in either Russian or Soviet history. Magnistky, who worked for the British-based […]

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Investigators Close Case Into Magnitsky’s Death

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova and Ezekiel Pfeifer – March 20, 2013) Investigators said Tuesday that they had closed the case into the 2009 death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, whose name is attached to a U.S. law that has caused tension in U.S.-Russian relations by seeking to punish Russians implicated in human rights violations. An inquiry into Magnitsky’s […]

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Tussle Brews In Washington Over Russia Sanctions List

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Richard Solash – March 13, 2013) WASHINGTON — A tussle is brewing in Washington over who will be included on a U.S. list of sanctioned Russian officials to be published next month. Officials with the State Department are reportedly advocating steps that would shorten the politically sensitive “Magnitsky list,” while members of Congress and NGOs who […]

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