Tag: Prisons

Interfax: Lawyers say custody conditions of Arctic Sunrise activists acceptable

Arctic, Environment, Nonprofits, Activists, NGO's
Polar Map Showing Permafrost Areas, Adapted From NOAA.gov Graphic

ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 14 (Interfax) – Lawyers have met with several Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise activists in a St. Petersburg detention facility, a Greenpeace spokesman told Interfax on Thursday. “The lawyers met with five environmentalists, including Russian citizen Andrei Allakhverdov, who had been placed into the Kresty [detention facility]. The detention facility is basically all right, and the conditions are acceptable. […]

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Russian ombudsman pledges to follow Pussy Riot case

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights
Vladimir Lukin file photo

(Interfax – Moscow, November 12, 2013) Pussy Riot punk group member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been placed at the medical unit of a prison colony in the Krasnoyarsk Region, human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin told Russian Interfax news agency. “Tolokonnikova has arrived in the Krasnoyarsk Region, where she will serve the remainder of the sentence. As I have been told, at […]

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Lawmakers From 21 Countries Form Magnitsky Group

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Human Rights
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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The Zone

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, History, Soviet Union, Human Rights
Kremlin and St. Basil's file photo

(opendemocracy.net – Ola Cichowlas – November 9, 2013) Ola Cichowlas is a British-Polish freelance journalist. She covers Russian regional politics and the arts in provincial Russia. The northern territory of the Perm region is known as ‘the Zone’ ­  a remote region of prison camps and correctional facilities. Ola Cichowlas came to know it quite well…. Russia’s prison camps are […]

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A memorial day few Russians want to remember

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, History, Soviet Union, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Prison in Russia with Wall, Barbed Wire, Guard Tower

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Julia Reed in Moscow – November 7, 2013) “Who was killed in your family?” A man in a beret in his early 60s asked me as he joined the long queue of people. We were both attending the annual recital of the names of the victims of political repressions in Russia by the Solovetsky […]

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Interfax: Pussy Riot’s Tolokonnikova still en route to new jail – human rights commissioner

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Pussy Riot Members in Courtroom Enclosure, With Man Showing Papers to One While Female Guard Looks On

(Interfax – November 5, 2013) Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of the convicted performers of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot, who is currently being transported to a new penitentiary, is feeling well and eating properly, Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin told Interfax on Tuesday. “Acting at the request of several human rights campaigners, I got in touch with the administration […]

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Greenpeace Rebuffs Talk of Arctic Protest Conspiracy

Arctic, Human Rights, International Law, Nonprofits, Activists, NGO's, Oil, Gas, Energy, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Polar Map Showing Permafrost Areas, Adapted From NOAA.gov Graphic

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – November 1, 2013) In early October, Rosneft head Igor Sechin made a brief, enigmatic comment suggesting that there was more than meets the eye behind a Greenpeace protest Sept. 18 against a Gazprom oil rig in the Arctic, an action that resulted in the arrest of 30 people and a black eye […]

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Victims of Soviet Repressions Remembered

History, Soviet Union, Human Rights
File Photo of Prison in Russia with Wall, Barbed Wire, Guard Tower

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 31, 2013) Events were held around the country Wednesday to commemorate the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions, which is devoted to those affected by political persecution in the Soviet Union. Hundreds of people held a rally in central St. Petersburg near the Solovetsky Stone, a monument to victims of political […]

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Moscow Times: Russians See Greenpeace Protest as a Foreign Plot

Arctic, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Environment, Foreign Policy, Security, Visas, Human Rights, International Law, Nonprofits, Activists, NGO's, Oil, Gas, Energy, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Race, Ethnic, Extremism, Xenophobia
Polar Map of Major Rail Lines in Russia, Canada and United States, With Hypothetical Additional Route Drawn In Connecting Them Across Bering Strait

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – October 29, 2013) State pollster VTsIOM released survey results Monday regarding last month’s Greenpeace protest in the Arctic that indicate more than a third of Russians believe the protest was a foreign plot and more than two-thirds disagree with the group’s message of needing to protect the environment from oil drilling. Armed […]

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Amnesty will promote civil accord, dialogue between society, authorities – Russian rights activists

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Nonprofits, Activists, NGO's, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) – The leaders of Russian human rights organizations believe a broad amnesty timed with the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution will help establish effective dialogue between the authorities and civil society. “Will the authorities find the energy to build relations with civil society again” The best way out of this deadlock would be broad amnesty, […]

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RIA Novosti: Russian Authorities Dismiss Punk Rocker’s Jail Abuse Claim

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

MOSCOW, October 24 (RIA Novosti) ­ Russian investigators will not open a criminal case into allegations by jailed feminist punk rocker Nadezhda Tolokonnikova that a prison official threatened to kill her, a spokesperson for the Investigative Committee said Thursday. “A decision has been taken not to open a criminal case because no crime was committed,” said Natalya Afanasieva, a spokeswoman […]

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Explainer: Russia’s Prison Amnesty

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Claire Bigg – October 19, 2013) The Russian presidential human rights council has presented Vladimir Putin with its proposal for a sweeping prison amnesty to mark the 20th anniversary of the country’s adoption of its post-Soviet constitution. Up to one-quarter of the country’s inmates could walk free under the amnesty. Who initiated the planned amnesty? Russian […]

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Broad Amnesty Proposals Need to Be ‘Revised’

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 15, 2013) State Duma deputies are calling for changes to the proposal prison amnesty that could benefit prominent convicts like former oil tycoon Khodorkovsky. State Duma deputies want to make changes to the broad amnesty proposal drafted by the Kremlin’s human rights council for the 20th anniversary of the Constitution, and are working on […]

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The Gulag within: Harsh realities of Russian penal colonies

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights
Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – October 1, 2013) For 22-year-old Lena Ivanova, work at a penal colony sewing military uniforms began at 8:30 a.m. and could last well into the night. “There were situations when there was a big [production] order, and the warden would call everyone outside [into the square] rain or snow, and we were […]

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Pussy Riot and Prison Reform

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
Kremlin and St. Basil's

(RIA Novosti – Natalia Antonova, Acting Editor-in-Chief of The Moscow News – September 23, 2013) This week, Lenta.ru published a letter from Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who is serving a two-year sentence in a penal colony for having participated in a “punk prayer” in Russia’s main cathedral back in the winter of 2012. Tolokonnikova is serving her time in a […]

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Over 13,000 people convicted for economic crimes are now in prison in Russia – business ombudsman

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
Boris Titov file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 12, 2013) Business ombudsman Boris Titov believes the issue of criminal prosecution of businessmen is blown out of proportion, although law enforcement agencies are frequently biased against businessmen. “Statements made in the press sometimes blow the issue out of proportion. Statistically, it’s not 300,000 people who have been prosecuted. A little more than 13,000 people, including […]

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Lawyers Want Community Service for Pussy Riot – ­ Report

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Religion
File Photo of Pussy Riot Members in Courtroom Enclosure, With Man Showing Papers to One While Female Guard Looks On

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 23, 2013) ­ Lawyers of the two jailed members of the Russian feminist punk protest group Pussy Riot are filing a petition to have their clients’ remaining jail time replaced with community service, a Russian daily reported Friday. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were sentenced to two years in jail last August for their February […]

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Former Tula Governor Sentenced to 9 1/2 Years

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Regions, Cities, Municipalities
Map of Western CIS/FSU and European Environs

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – July 23, 2013) Former Tula Governor Vyacheslav Dudka will spend nearly 9 1/2 years in a high-security prison in what marks the first time a former governor has received such a harsh sentence in modern Russia. Dudka was sentenced by a local court Monday for accepting 40 million rubles ($1.3 million) in […]

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First 13 Businessmen Released in Economic Amnesty

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) ­ The first thirteen businessmen have been set free in Russia as part of an economic amnesty for white-collar criminals that came into effect earlier this month, business ombudsmen Boris Titov said Tuesday. “As of now, 13 people have been released under the amnesty,” Titov told reporters. Eight people have left pre-trial detention […]

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Interfax: Moscow urges Washington not to extend Magnitsky List

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Foreign Policy, Security, Visas, Human Rights, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
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

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
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

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
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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Rights Council Members Shown a Transformed Chechnya

Chechnya, Dagestan, North Caucasus, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights
Map of Chechnya and Environs

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – July 11, 2013) During the Second Chechen War, witnesses described Chechnya’s Chernokozovo prison as a place where suspected Chechen rebels were tortured until their relatives paid a bribe sufficient for their release. Prisoners arriving at the facility were greeted with the phrase “Welcome to hell” and subsequently forced to undergo a series […]

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Human right activist supports British ban on Russians on Magnitsky List

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Europe, EU, Human Rights
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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First businessmen to be released under amnesty in several days

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(Interfax – MOSCOW. July 3, 2013) Convicts eligible for the economic amnesty, which comes into effect on July 4, will be released in several days because the procedure of releasing convicts under amnesty is held in several stages, spokesperson of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service Kristina Belousova said. “From the day the amnesty comes into effect, head of a correction […]

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Magnitsky-Linked Official is Suspect in Fraud Case – Report

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
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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Business Amnesty Bill Approved

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – July 3, 2013) The State Duma on Tuesday passed in the third and final reading the long-awaited economic crimes amnesty bill, which will free several thousand businessmen from the nation’s prisons. But despite the fact that the legislation was supported by all of the Duma parties when it was being prepared, only […]

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Ombudsman Lukin welcomes economic amnesty, says too early to evaluate it

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Human Rights
Vladimir Lukin file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 2, 2013) Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said he expected the economic amnesty, declared by the Russian State Duma on Tuesday, to have positive effect. “Any amnesty of not very serious criminals is a positive deed. I welcome this amnesty,” Lukin told Interfax on Tuesday. “Arguments on how wide and deep the amnesty is are […]

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Human rights activist Alexeyeva skeptical of declared economical amnesty

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Human Rights
Lyudmila Alekseyeva file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 2, 2013) Russia’s oldest human rights activist, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva said she criticized the economic amnesty declared by the Russian State Duma on Tuesday. “The obligation to repay damages undercuts this entire amnesty. This is a fly in the ointment,” Alexeyeva told Interfax on Tuesday. “If a person indeed did steal, […]

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Economic amnesty does not apply to Khodorkovsky, Lebedev – lawyer

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, YUKOS, Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW. June 25, 2013) Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev are not eligible for the economic amnesty, their defense said. “As we have suspected, although hope dies last, this amnesty was not intended to release Khodorkovsky and Lebedev,” Lebedev’s lawyer Vladimir Krasnov told Interfax on Tuesday. “Comparing what was planned at the start […]

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Over 100,000 to Benefit From Economic Amnesty – Ombudsman

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Boris Titov file photo

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 26, 2013) ­ A proposed economic amnesty in Russia is expected to release almost 100,000 people from criminal liability, Russia’s business ombudsman Boris Titov said on Wednesday. “Under a previous draft, we counted 13,500 people serving their prison terms on charges covered by the draft amnesty. But we should also not forget about 70,000-80,000 people […]

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Khodorkovsky says could have committed suicide if had known he would be imprisoned

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, YUKOS, Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 24, 2013) Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who will turn fifty in several days, said he would have committed suicide by shooting himself if he had known what was in store for him after his arrest in Novosibirsk ten years ago. Responding to a question from The New Times as to what he would have done […]

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

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
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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Moscow Court Orders Release of Opposition-Backed Businessman

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
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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Khodorkovsky reiterates he has no plans to become politician

Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, YUKOS, Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(Interfax – May 27, 2013) Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose current 11-year prison term expires in 2014, has reiterated he has no plans to get involved in political activities after his release. “I don’t seek a political career, something I’ve said many times,” Khodorkovsky told German newspaper Die Tageszeitung in an interview transcript which is re-posted on his […]

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

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Human Rights, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
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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Courts and Prisons the Focus of Human Rights Complaints

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights
Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – April 3, 2013) Unfair court judgments, poor prison conditions and abuse of authority by law enforcement officials were among the main complaints received by Kremlin human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin last year, which he said in an annual report was the “most difficult” for him since taking his post in 2004. Last […]

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Russian official testifies in Magnitsky’s alleged tax evasion trial

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
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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Number of convicts drops to 575,000 in Russia for the first time in contemporary history

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime
Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax) – Some 600,000 people are currently serving prison time in Russia, Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov said. “For the first time in at last 20 years, in the entire contemporary history of the Russian Federation, the number of people serving their sentences in prisons and penal colonies, i.e., people convicted to isolation, has dropped to at […]

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Trial of Dead Lawyer Magnitsky Begins in Moscow

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
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

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
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

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Human Rights, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
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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Titov Seeks Changes to Pretrial Detention Rules

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
Boris Titov file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – March 13, 2013) The case of an entrepreneur who spent five years behind bars before even being sentenced will be used by the business ombudsman to reduce the maximum time that suspected criminals can remain in pretrial detention. Business ombudsman Boris Titov has joined forces with human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin to […]

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NEWSLINK: Sergei Magnitsky: The enemy within: A saga that has been a parable of the self-mutilating way Russia is governed

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Russia & the West, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

[Sergei Magnitsky:  The enemy within: A saga that has been a parable of the self-mutilating way Russia is governed – The Economist – Editorial – March 9, 2013 – http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21573119-saga-has-been-parable-self-mutilating-way-russia-governed-enemy-within] The Economist issues an editorial on the Magnitsky saga and its aftermath, and what it shows about brutal, deadly elitism in Russia: Martyred human rights activists; fatally brave journalists: Russia, […]

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Magnitsky to be posthumously tried for corruption today

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights
Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – February 18, 2013) Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer was allegedly killed while in pre-trial detention in 2009, will go on posthumous trial today in what is going to be Russias most controversial case since the jailing of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The Kremlin has been outraged by the so-called Magnitsky law, passed last year, which […]

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‘Kafkaesque’ Trial of Dead Hermitage Lawyer Starts in Moscow

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Human Rights
Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer & Ilya Arkhipov – January 28, 2013) A Moscow court opened the posthumous trial of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management Ltd. who died in prison, in a case condemned by Amnesty International as “Kafkaesque.” The state is appointing lawyers for Magnitsky and Hermitage head William Browder for the next hearing, set […]

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Medvedev: U.S. Magnitsky Act, Russia’s response do not benefit relations between countries

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Human Rights, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
File Photo of U.S. Capitol Dome

(Interfax – January 28, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has described as an intentional legal mistake the adoption of the Magnitsky Act by the U.S. Congress. “I think that the whole situation is bad. It is not beneficial for either Russian-American relations or international law and order,” he said in an interview with CNN, the transcript of which is […]

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Russian diplomat sees possible ‘political risks’ in OECD entry talks

Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Foreign Policy, Security, Visas
OECD Logo

(Interfax – January 2, 2013) Moscow does not rule out negotiations on Russia’s entry to the OECD may be accompanied by “political risks” linked to the case of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergey Magnitskiy’s death, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s economic cooperation department Aleksandr Gorban said, as reported by Interfax on 2 January. “These concerns are fair. There are […]

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Magnitsky Play at Teatr.doc Hits Harder Than Ever

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Human Rights, Life in Russia, Culture, Arts
Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – John Freedman – December 28, 2012) Some things remain relevant longer than you would expect. Take the death of Sergei Magnitsky. This muck-raking attorney was allowed to die in a Moscow prison in November 2009. That story was still making news when Teatr.doc opened a show called “One Hour Eighteen” in the early summer of […]

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Acquittal Nears for Magnitsky Suspect

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights
Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – December 26, 2012) A prosecutor on Monday requested that the only remaining defendant in whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death be acquitted of criminal negligence. The United States recently passed a law to impose international sanctions on Russians it believes were involved in the 2009 death, but Russia has not made any conviction […]

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