(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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(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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MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) A former officer of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) suspected by the British authorities of poisoning Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko said on Tuesday that he will pull out of the inquest into the killing, blaming political pressure from London. Andrei Lugovoi, who met with Litvinenko days before his death in 2006, called a press […]
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[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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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – February 25, 2013) Anna Arutunyan is the politics editor of The Moscow News A story needs a beginning and end, but what has become the main narrative of Russia’s current political era doesn’t seem to have either. And the weak are meat the strong do eat, as David Mitchell coined in his […]
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(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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[excerpt] Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:01:56 -0500 From: Patrick Armstrong <gpa@magma.ca> Subject: [UTExpertsDiscGrp] RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 20130131 RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 31 January 2013 MAGNITSKIY. Yet another one-sided piece of re-typing has hit the West. The posthumous “trial” of Magnitskiy is being described as bizarre, Kafkaesque, absurd and so on without any background Here is some. A couple of years […]
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MOSCOW, January 30 (RIA Novosti) – Russian media experts said on Wednesday the country deserves its 148th position out of 179 on the 2013 Press Freedom Index, six points down from last year. Reporters without Borders, which published the index on Tuesday, said Russia has lost points again because “since Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency, repression has been stepped […]
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(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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(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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MOSCOW. Jan 15 (Interfax) – The Russian Investigative Committee has pledged to continue the inquiry into the 1995 killing of popular journalist and TV anchor Vladislav Listyev. “It is still early to draw the line in this case. It will not be closed. The inquiry has been put on hold and the services responsible for it have been instructed to […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 14 (Interfax) – Detectives investigating the murder of Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya are very close to the identification of persons who ordered the high-profile crime. The possible involvement of Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev has not been proven so far, Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Interfax in an exclusive interview. “I can say that the […]
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(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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(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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(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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From: “Committee to Protect Journalists – ECA” <eurasia@cpj.org> Subject: CPJ: Russia still far from solving Politkovskaya murder Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2012 Committee to Protect Journalists www.cpj.org News Alert Russia still far from solving Politkovskaya murder New York, December 17, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for a retrial of a key defendant in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – Dec. 14, 2012) The dramatic affair about the death of Alexander Litvinenko resurfaced with force Thursday, when a lawyer told a London judicial hearing that an initial assessment of evidence showed that the Russian state is to blame for the mysterious poisoning of the Kremlin dissident. An examination of British government […]
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From: “William Dunkerley” <wd@publishinghelp.com> Subject: Moscow Times Files False Report on Litvinenko Hearing Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2012 “Russia Implicated in Litvinenko Death,” The Moscow Times, December 14, 2012 (JRL #221) appears to tell what happened at a London hearing on the suspicious death of Alexander Litvinenko. Unfortunately it paints a false picture. The story claims the hearing was told […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) – In 20 years 341 journalists have been killed in Russia, the Russian Journalists’ Union announced on Saturday. The list includes reporters killed in conflicts and counterterrorist operations, in peaceful times, reported missing and dead under uninvestigated circumstances. On December 15 the union marks the Day of Remembrance of Killed Journalists and on that day the […]
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[Factbox: Details of U.S. bill on Russia trade, human rights – Reuters – Dec. 13, 2012 – http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/12/13/uk-usa-russia-trade-idUKBRE8BC18120121213] Reuters sets out bullet points recent U.S. legislation consider trade and Russian human rights, developed in response to Russia’s August 22, 2012, accession to the WTO. Regarding trade, the legislation repeals the Jackson-Vanik amendment and looks to ensure investment-related rule of law, […]
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[U.S.-Russia ties take a hit: As the Jackson-Vanik amendment is finally repealed, the controversial Magnitsky act provokes similar legislation from Russia and may hamper U.S.-Russia relations. – Russia Beyond the Headlines – Alexander Gasyuk – Alexander Gasyuk is Rossiyskaya Gazeta’s Washington D.C. Bureau chief – Dec. 14, 2012 – http://rbth.ru/articles/2012/12/14/once_again_us-russia_ties_take_a_hit_21107.html] Russia Behind the Headlnies covers U.S. Congressional passage of the […]
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MOSCOW, December 14 (RIA Novosti) – A Moscow court sentenced a former police officer to 11 years in prison on Friday for his role in the 2006 killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov was convicted in a separate trial from the others accused of involvement in the killing, the mastermind of which remains at liberty. Politkovskaya, a reporter […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – Dec. 13, 2012) A Moscow judge upheld a controversial plea bargain that could complicate efforts to determine who ordered the killing of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006. Judge Alexander Zamashnyuk ruled that Politkovskaya’s two children had no right to challenge the deal, which includes a reduced sentence for the suspect, […]
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MOSCOW, December 13 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted a US bill targeting alleged Russian human rights violators as an “unfriendly act,” but said Russia’s response should be “adequate and not excessive.” “We certainly have to have an appropriate response. The State Duma has taken the initiative, which in my opinion is absolutely correct. But we need to […]
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(Interfax – Dec. 11, 2012) The United Russia faction at the State Duma has proposed to name the bill retaliating against the Magnitsky Act after 18-months-old Dima Yakovlev who died after his adoptive American father left him in a locked car in a parking lot for nine hours on a hot day. “They named their act after Magnitsky and United […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – Dec. 11, 2012) In a widely expected response to the passage of the U.S. Magnitsky Act, State Duma deputies on Monday introduced a bill that would make Americans suspected of mistreating Russians personae non gratae. The bill bans Americans from traveling or investing in Russia if they are deemed to have “illegally” […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – Dec. 10, 2012) Buoyed by the U.S. Senate’s endorsement of the Magnitsky Act, Russian opposition leaders and some European lawmakers are calling on the European Union to adopt similar legislation that punishes presumed human rights offenders. Mikhail Kasyanov, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Boris Nemtsov, the chairmen of the “Republican Party of Russia […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – Dec. 10, 2012) Historical mistrust and relatively weak trade links could amplify the Magnitsky Act’s damage to U.S.-Russian relations, although Washington will likely use caution in applying sanctions to Russians suspected of human rights violations, analysts said. “In the absence of a solid background of trust and partnership, even relatively insignificant episodes […]
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MOSCOW, December 8 (RIA Novosti) More than twice the number of Russians approve of recent US legislation imposing sanctions on Russian officials deemed to have violated human rights than disapprove, according to a nationwide poll released this week by the respected Levada Center. The center found that 39 percent of Russians fully or mostly agree with the Sergei Magnitsky […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – Dec. 3, 2012) Magnitsky’s life reveals a man who was in many ways ordinary and felt compelled to fight a state machine he had trusted his whole career. When a childhood friend said he was thinking of not returning to Russia after a concert tour abroad in 2000, Sergei Magnitsky gave him […]
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(The Magnitsky Bill: The Sources of America’s Obsession with Russia – US-Russia.org – featuring Vlad Sobell, Ron Paul, Edward Lozansky, Willism Dunkerley, Alexander Rahr, Alexandre Strokanov, Nicolai Petro, Mark Nuckols, Patrick Armstrong, and Sergei Roy – Nov. 28, 2012 – click here for full article) US-Russia.org features remarks in Congress by Cong. Ron Paul, as well as commentary by Vlad […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 29 (Interfax) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev thinks that the support of the Magnitsky Act by European countries is pointless and vows that Russia will respond to such a decision by the U.S. Congress. “If we speak about this act, it will invoke both symmetrical and asymmetrical reactions on our behalf. We passed all of these in […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova – Nov. 26, 2012) Let’s get one thing out of the way first I am married to one of the actors starring in “One hour and eighteen minutes,” a documentary play about the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. And I am not here to talk to you about the quality of the […]
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(Voice of America – James Brooke – November 21, 2012 – James Brooke is VOA Moscow bureau chief, covering Russia and the former USSR) MOSCOW Next week, the United States Senate is to take up the Magnitsky Act, a bill that would ban visas for, and freeze the bank accounts of, about 60 Russian officials believed to have been […]
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(RIA Novosti – November 20, 2012) Russian MPs have put forward various proposals for how Russia should respond to the USA’s “Magnitskiy list”, such as compiling a similar list of US officials or stepping up cooperation with the USA’s opponents, state news agency RIA Novosti reported on 20 November. The House of Representatives of the US Congress approved the “Magnitskiy […]
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WASHINGTON, November 21 (By Carl Schreck for RIA Novosti) – With the Magnitsky Act moving through the US Congress, American lawmakers are making clear their intent to punish Russian officials deemed by Washington to be responsible for human rights abuses. Less clear is who will end up on this blacklistand how. The Magnitsky bill passed Friday by the US House […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Roland Oliphant – November 19, 2012) U.S. President Barack Obama could sign the Magnitsky act into law by the end of this year, backers of the bill have said. The landmark legislation was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday. The bill would allow permanent normal trade relations with Russia and at the […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) – Moscow forestalled the adoption of the so-called Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act in the U.S. by enacting the law on NGOs acting as foreign agents, which is quite painful for Washington, but it should be prepared to see a number of European Union countries considering bills analogous to the one just passed by […]
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(Russia warns U.S. over human rights bill – Reuters – Thomas Grove – November 16, 2012 – http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/16/us-usa-russia-idUSBRE8AF0RA20121116) Reuters covers Russian attempts to pressure the u.S. Congress over human rights legislation before it, being addresses in connection with trade legislation: Russia increased pressure on the U.S. Congress on Friday not to pass legislation that would punish Russian officials for human […]
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(Three cheers for the Magnitsky Act and American values- AEIdeas – www.aei.org – Leon Aron – November 15, 2012 – Leon Aron is Resident Scholar and Director of Russian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute – http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/11/three-cheers-for-the-magnitsky-act-and-american-values/) Leon Aron of the American Enterprise Institute addresses the Magnitsky Act legislation currently before Congress: In the next few days, the House and […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, 14 November) Head of the State Duma Committee for International Affairs Aleksey Pushkov is convinced that the US Congressmen’s intention to pass the so-called Magnitskiy list law’ on Friday (16 November) and to abolish the Jackson-Vanik amendment at the same time shows that two different lobbying groups, one political and one economic, are involved. “By now, one […]
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(Russia threatens tough response if US back rights bill – Reuters – Steve Gutterman – November 15 – http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/15/russia-usa-idUSL5E8MFA6K20121115) Leading up to House consideration of Congressional legislation impacting trade relations with Russia, and sanctions over human rights issues, Reuters covers Russian warnings: Russia warned the United States on Thursday to expect a tough response if Congress passes “unfriendly and provocative” […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova and Anatoly Medetsky – November 15, 2012) The Kremlin remained silent Wednesday after U.S. lawmakers moved to advance a bill to punish Russian officials for human rights violations. A decision Tuesday by the House Rules Committee will bring the bill, which aroused strong opposition in Moscow, up for a vote by the full […]
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WASHINGTON, November 15 (By Maria Young for RIA Novosti) The Louisiana Caviar Company in the southern US coastal city of New Orleans produces a unique fish delicacy that is wildly popular in Russia. But owner John Burke says his company could profit much more if US lawmakers would approve permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Russiaa move expected to be […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Alina Lobzina – November 14, 2012) An official linked with the case of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in custody awaiting trial, has reportedly come to the attention of investigators in connection with the recent Defense Ministry’s embezzlement scandal. Investigators re-opened a case over illegal VAT recovery, dating back to 2010, when Olga Stepanova headed […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, 5 November) Russia will not be able to prevent the adoption of the so called Magnitskiy list either in the USA or in Europe, deputy head of the USA and Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Viktor Kremenyuk said. “The Magnitskiy list will certainly be adopted (in the USA – Interfax) and Europe will also […]
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(RFE/RL – Tom Balmforth – November 05, 2012) MOSCOW — Suicide bombings in police stations. Muslim clerics gunned down in broad daylight. Shoot-outs between insurgents and security forces. These have become run-of-the-mill headlines in Russia’s troubled North Caucasus region of Daghestan. Last week, unidentified gunmen shot dead an imam and two of his male relatives as they drove to morning […]
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(Interfax – October 24, 2012) The resolution on the Magnitskiy (Magnitsky) list passed by the European Parliament is “designed to undermine contacts between Russia and Europe”, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 24 October, quoting head of the State Duma International Affairs Committee Aleskey Pushkov. Politicians On 23 October the European lawmakers passed a resolution requiring the EU to draw […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax) – Moscow’s Tverskoi Court on Tuesday will continue hearings of the criminal case against a former deputy head of Butyrka prison, Dmitry Kratov, who is the only suspect thus far to have been accused of negligence leading to Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death. Evidence is expected to be provided by investigator Oleg Silchenko, who probed […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax) – The people accused of murdering Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya will ask for a jury trial. “We will certainly make a motion for a trial by jury. Legislation allows us to do so,” Alexei Mikhalchik, a defense lawyer for one of the suspects, told Interfax. According to the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure, a request […]
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