// Press Releases (in English)
Kremlin’s TV Accused the CIA of a Plot to Cause the Death of Sergei Magnitsky
April 14, 2016
Last night, the Kremlin’s main TV propaganda channel, Rossiya-1, distributed a video showing fake documents claiming that the CIA had organised the withholding of medical care to Sergei Magnitsky in a Russian detention center to cause his death. To support this claim, the TV channel showed a CIA report dated 20 September 2009, which according to one of the program’s participants, was authenticated in a forensic report by a UK company headed by a senior ex MI-6 agent.
“The Kremlin’s propaganda is in contradiction with all official Russian documents describing the torturous conditions that had been created by Russian authorities for Sergei Magnitsky during his 358 days in detention and the fact that senior officials in the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office refused his written requests for medical attention,” said a representative of Magnitsky Justice Campaign.
As a result of his mistreatment for the first six months in detention, Sergei Magnitsky lost nearly 20 kg, and developed pancreatitis and gallstones, which were diagnosed on 1 July 2009, as shown by reply from Matrosskaya Tishina detention center. He was prescribed surgery. But one week before the scheduled surgery, Sergei Magnitsky was moved to a new detention center, Butyrka, which did not have any medical facilities. The decision was sanctioned by Russian Interior Ministry investigator Silchenko and serving head of the Russian Penitentiary System Petrukhin. All requests from Sergei Magnitsky and his lawyers for medical care were refused by officials from the Interior Ministry, General Prosecutor’s Office, detention system, and judges (see The Torture and Murder of Sergei Magnitsky report).
In May 2009, the Council of Europe’s Rapporteur asked Russian General Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the torturous conditions Sergei Magnitsky was subjected to in detention. She received an official response that Sergei Magnitsky had not been arrested and that the named police officer did not work in the Russian Interior Ministry. The UK Law Society wrote to Russian General Prosecutor Chaika in July 2009 urging him to release Sergei Magnitsky from custody. In October 2009, General Prosecutor’s Office responded that there was no need to intervene, and that there was no violation of his rights in custody.
On 16 November 2009, after nearly 12 months in custody Sergei Magnitsky was moved from Byturka to Matrosskaya Tishina, allegedly for hospitalisation. But instead of being admitted to the hospital, Sergei Magnitsky was put in an isolation cell and beaten by eight guards. Civilian doctors were not let into his cell until he was dead. In spite of an application from Sergei Magnitsky’s mother to bring to justice over 50 officials from the General Prosecutor’s Office, Interior Ministry, FSB and Penitentiary System for the murder of her son, the Russian Investigative Committee closed the case into his death claiming absence of crime.
The journalist behind yesterday’s fake “evidence” on the alleged CIA Plot to kill Sergei Magnitsky is Evgeniy Popov, who works for Rossiya-1, and has been sanctioned by Ukraine for his role in the disinformation campaign about the war in Ukraine. Earlier in April, Evgeniy Popov traveled to London to obtain a video footage of William Browder’s office there. Police had to be called in because of disruption he caused.
Bill Browder’s ‘Red Notice’ –New York Times Bestseller – Is Launched in Paperback in the UK
February 12, 2016
Bill Browder’s ‘Red Notice’ –New York Times Bestseller – Is Launched in Paperback in the UK
12 February 2016 – Bill Browder’s ‘Red Notice’, a best selling real-life thriller about one man’s fight for justice against Russian President Vladimir Putin, is launched this week in paperback in the UK.
‘Red Notice’ won the hearts and minds of readers across the world and became an instant best seller when it was published last year. On Amazon it was rated No 1 in Books on International Business and No 1 in Books on Russia. Enthusiastic audiences have called it “Fabulous, gripping and entertaining!” and a “Chilling book about evil in high places.”
‘Red Notice’ was No 1 in Crime & Punishment on the New York Times best seller list, and topped book charts across the world on business, espionage and human rights.
80% of readers on Amazon gave ‘Red Notice’ a 5-star rating, with 96% of readers giving it a 4 or 5 star ranking.
‘Red Notice’ was among Amazon’s top ten audio books on History in Europe, and a top business book on Amazon Kindle.
Readers reviews of ‘Red Notice’ on Goodreads and Amazon say:
“This book was absolutely incredible. I couldn’t put it down. It made me cry, it shocked me, it made me want to hug every person who fought so hard to make things right. Incredible!!!”
“ I’ve recommended this book many times, and each person who reads it is blown away.”
“This book should be fiction. But it’s not. I was up until 4 a.m. to finish it.”
“Rarely has a book gripped me like this. I didn’t want to do anything else but read it. It is utterly mesmerizing. I loved it, even though I’m not great at understanding financial concepts (the stock market is a totally foreign place to me), but Browder does a good job of explaining things in layman’s terms.”
“I wish I could award more stars. This is, without doubt, the best thing I’ve read this decade. I implore my friends, family, and even those I don’t particularly like to treat yourselves to Red Notice.”
“Wow, just simply wow.”
Red Notice received 3,123 Ratings on Goodreads alone, with 97% of readers liking it.
In the UK, Red Notice hit The Sunday Times best seller list and was one of Daunt’s 2015 books of choice. It was also among the top ten books on the Globe & Mail bestseller list in Canada, and No 6 on the Neilsen Bestseller list in New Zealand.
Red Notice has been featured on CNBC’s “What Wall Street is Reading this Summer” and on Wall Street’s Spring Break Reading List, as well as on New York Times’ End of Summer Reading List.
Red Notice is available in shops, online, and in kindle and audio versions. Information about the book, including purchasing links, can be found on the author’s website, www.billbrowder.com.
Bill Browder,the author of ‘Red Notice,’ was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia, until he was declared persona non grata by President Putin. Since 2009 Bill Browder has been leading a global justice campaign for his murdered Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, which has so far resulted in the passing of the Magnitsky Law in the United States and similar resolutions in the European Parliament.
For more information please contact:
Justice for Sergei Magnitsky
+44 207 440 1777
e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
www.lawandorderinrussia.org
Twitter: @Billbrowder
www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables
www.billbrowder.com
Sergei Magnitsky’s Mother Slams Russian Foreign Ministry’s Comments About New US Magnitsky List
February 11, 2016
Sergei Magnitsky’s Mother Slams Russian Foreign Ministry’s Comments About New US Magnitsky List
11 February 2016 – Natalia Magnitskaya, the mother of Sergei Magnitsky, released a statement today responding to the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s recent commentary that the expansion of the Magnitsky list was an effort to “discredit” Russia.
Natalia Magnitskaya asked the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry to publish her statement on its website.
“Each of the officials [included in the list of Magnitsky] has been involved in malfeasance, acting with impunity guaranteed by beneficiaries of the 5.4 billion rubles ($230 mln) theft, and is rightly included in the sanctions list,” said Natalia Magnitskaya.
“Our country is discredited not by the existence of this list, but by officials who worked towards corrupt goals instead of performing their duties to safeguard and protect our country and its citizens,” said Natalia Magnitskaya.
“I take as an insult the recent comment [from the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry] that the tragic fate of my son was a ‘bargaining chip’ in the ‘unscrupulous Washington’s campaign to discredit our country.’ For my son, such concepts as ‘honesty’, ‘honor’, ‘patriotism’ and ‘duty’ were not empty words, but his life’s principles”, said Ms Magnitskaya.
“The [Russian] investigators and prosecutors tasked to investigate my son’s death and the embezzlement of budget funds deliberately destroyed evidence, sabotaged the investigation, advanced knowingly false theories and ended up with accusing my son after his death of organizing the theft of 5.4 billion rubles – the crime for the exposure of which he suffered martyrdom and death,” said Ms Magnitskaya.
“With bitter regret I note that the Magnitsky Law and the Magnitsky Sanctions List, which the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Information Department called ‘notorious,’ today are the only means to tell the public about the abuses committed by some officials in the law enforcement and judicial authorities,” said Ms Magnitskaya.
Earlier this month, the US State Department announced the addition of four Russian Interior Ministry officials for their role in the posthumous persecution of Sergei Magnitsky to the visa and financial sanctions list under the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.”
For more information, please contact:
Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Campaign
e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Twitter: @KatieFisher__
www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables
New Entries in the Magnitsky List, February 2016
https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20160201.aspx
US Government Sanctions Russian Officials Who Posthumously Accused Sergei Magnitsky in the US$230 Million Fraud He Had Uncovered
February 2, 2016
US Government Sanctions Russian Officials Who Posthumously Accused Sergei Magnitsky in the US$230 Million Fraud He Had Uncovered
2 February 2016 – The United States government has announced visa bans and asset freezes on several Russian officials involved in the posthumous accusation of Sergei Magnitsky in the US$230 Million fraud that he had in fact uncovered.
“This is an important development in the continued fight for justice in the Sergei Magnitsky case. In spite of international condemnation, Russian authorities continue to falsely accuse Sergei Magnitsky in the $230 million theft from the Russian government that he uncovered and exposed. These sanctions show that it is not acceptable for the people involved in the crime to hide behind a man they killed,” said Bill Browder, leader of the Magnitsky Justice campaign.
The new Magnitsky-related sanctions list announced by the US Treasury includes four Russian Interior Ministry officials involved in posthumous proceedings against Sergei Magnitsky:
1) Alexei Anichin, most senior Russian official on the list, was (until June 2011) Deputy Interior Minister and Head of the Investigative Committee of the Interior Ministry of Russia, which organized the arrest and detention of Sergei Magnitsky, and pressured him to withdraw testimony implicating Russian Interior Ministry officials in the US$230 million fraud, with Alexei Anichin personally signing a decree in those proceedings in July 2008. After Sergei Magnitsky died, the Anichin-led Investigative Committee advanced false accusations against Sergei Magnitsky posthumously.
2) Pavel Lapshov, Colonel of the Russian Interior Ministry, served (until October 2012) as Head of the Organized Crime and Corruption Directorate of the Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee. He appeared at a press conference in December 2011 to advance false posthumous accusations against Magnitsky and exonerate complicit officials (http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/52474.html).
3) Boris Kibis, investigator of the Russian Interior Ministry, who during 2011-2012 was in charge of the posthumous proceeding opened against Sergei Magnitsky after his death. Kibis also issued multiple summonses to Sergei Magnitsky’s mother and tried to remove her lawyer who challenged the posthumous proceedings.
4) Oleg Urzhumtsev, is a close associate of the criminal organization exposed by Sergei Magnitsky. He was an investigator from the Russian Interior Ministry put in charge of investigating the criminal conspiracy. In that role he exonerated its key members, and posthumously accused Sergei Magnitsky of the $230 million fraud that Magnitsky had uncovered. While in charge of “investigating” the Magnitsky-uncovered criminal conspiracy, investigator Oleg Urzhumtsev traveled with Andrei Pavlov and Yulia Mayorova, the two key persons whose role in the criminal conspiracy he was supposed to investigate, to Ukraine and back to Russia during 8-10 July 2008 http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/F13.pdf. He then questioned them in the two following months, on 21 August and 21 September 2008, about the circumstances of the criminal conspiracy and found on wrongdoing in their actions. The connection of Oleg Urzhumtsev to Andrei Pavlov, a close associate of the leader of the criminal conspiracy, Dmitry Klyuev, who himself had been previously sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act, goes back as far back as 2005 based on the joint travel pattern http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/F14.pdf.
“The Magnitsky Act was intended to be an open-ended process, and we are regularly reviewing the situation to see whether there are additional designations possible,” said the US State Department official.
Explaining the new Magnitsky-related designation, the US State Department official said:
“Aleksey Anichin was the former head of the Russian interior ministry’s investigative department. He was – he had authorized the criminal case under which Sergei Magnitsky was originally arrested. Pavel Lapshov was the head of the interior ministry’s investigative department of organized criminal activity. He was – his investigative unit concluded that Magnitsky himself was responsible for the conspiracy which Magnitsky uncovered. Two of the others – that is, Urzhumtsev and Kibis – were involved in the posthumous prosecution of Magnitsky.”
The new Magnitsky-related designation officially published on 1 February 2016, contains five individuals, bringing the total number of persons sanctioned since the enactment of the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act,” to 39.
For more information, please contact:
Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Campaign
e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Twitter: @KatieFisher__
www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables
List of New Magnitsky-related Designations:
https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20160201.aspx
Annual Report on the Implementation of the Sergei MagnitskyRule of Law Accountability Act:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/02/251969.htm?goMobile=0
Briefing by Senior State Department Official ViaTeleconference, February 1, 2016:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/02/251989.htm
Pro-Kremlin Russian Nationalist Politician Calls for Rendition of William Browder to Russia
January 28, 2016
Pro-Kremlin Russian Nationalist Politician Calls for Rendition of William Browder to Russia
28 January 2016 – Pro-Kremlin Russian nationalist politician, Eduard Limonov, has publicly called for the illegal rendition to Russia of UK-based Putin critic William Browder.
“The task of our special services is to catch Browder and bring him in a sack to Russia,” Eduard Limonov told to the pro-Putin news agency “Novy Den.” (http://newdaynews.ru/moskow/555722.html).
This is the second illegal rendition threat against Mr. Browder emanating from Russia. In the summer of 2014, Mr. Browder received a warning from the US Department of Justice of a similar Russian threat. The threat related to actions being put in place to “find” Mr Browder in London and “potentially return” him to Russia.
This most recent threat came just as Browder called on British Prime Minister Cameron to impose travel sanctions and asset freezes on senior officials in the Putin regime in response to the finding of the Russian state’s complicity in the Litvinenko murder which endangered lives of others in Britain.
In an open letter in the Guardian, William Browder said:
“You can’t undo an act of state-sponsored terrorism on British soil from 2006, but for the long-term safety and security of everyone in Britain you must act in a way that leaves no doubt that the UK government will not be cowed. You must stand firm and ensure serious consequences for anyone who dares to repeat such an atrocious act on British soil.”(http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/26/litvinenko-report-punish-russia-cameron-bill-browder)
Last month, on 15 December 2015, Russian General Prosecutor Chaika lashed out against William Browder, accusing him of working with Western special services to destabilise Russia by producing a corruption expose against the Russian General Prosecutor.
“I have absolutely no doubts that this mendacious movie has been ordered by W. Browder and intelligence services who are standing behind him… There is a global purpose – to compromise the Russian Prosecutor General, his regional subordinates, and once again to denounce our country as… the country worthy of economic and other sanctions,” said Russian General Prosecutor Chaika. (http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2876887)
Mr Limonov has become an outspoken supporter of Russian President Putin. This week, he tried to dismiss the expose of corruption involving Vladimir Putin as “part of US war against Russia.” https://www.therussophile.org/limonov-accusations-of-corruption-against-putin-are-part-of-us-war-against-russia.html/
For more information, please contact:
Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Campaign
e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Twitter: @KatieFisher__
www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables
For more information please visit