Magnitsky Murder Tops List of Questions for Medvedev at Davos

January 25, 2011

In a unique ini­tia­tive, the World Eco­nom­ic Forum orga­niz­ers this year have asked mem­bers to pro­pose and vote online on the ques­tions to be asked of Pres­i­dent Medvedev at Davos. The most pop­u­lar ques­tions will be unveiled at the Forum’s open­ing ple­nary ses­sion on Wednes­day, 26 Jan­u­ary, at 18:30 CET.
Accord­ing to Russ­ian busi­ness news­pa­per Vedo­mosti, the online poll con­duct­ed by the WEF showed that the sin­gle most pop­u­lar ques­tion to Medvedev is the ques­tion about the impuni­ty of police who killed 37-year old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Magnitsky:

“We heard from you that every­thing will be done that the Mag­nit­sky case is inves­ti­gat­ed and those guilty pros­e­cut­ed. In fact the main out­come has been that the key com­plic­it offi­cials from the Inte­ri­or Min­istry and the Pros­e­cu­tor Office, includ­ing Lt Col Kuznetsov and Major Kar­pov, and many oth­ers, have been pro­mot­ed and con­tin­ue to acquire expen­sive real estate and lux­u­ry cars…Why has there been no real actions against those com­plic­it in Mag­nit­sky case?”

The Vedo­mosti news­pa­per report­ed that as of yes­ter­day, 155 ques­tions to Medvedev were posed on the WEF web­site. The most pop­u­lar ques­tion vot­ed for by 63 respon­dents was the ques­tion about cor­rup­tion and impuni­ty of police offi­cials in Mag­nit­sky case.

“If Pres­i­dent Medvedev thinks seri­ous­ly of mod­ernising the coun­try, the very first step must be to end the cov­er up of senior offi­cials who mur­dered Mag­nit­sky and pros­e­cute them. Oth­er­wise, the rhetoric about attract­ing investors is a Potemkin vil­lage,” said William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, the firm that Mag­nit­sky rep­re­sent­ed in Rus­sia and until recent­ly the largest for­eign port­fo­lio investor in Russia.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed at his home in front of his fam­i­ly after he tes­ti­fied the involve­ment of police offi­cers in embez­zling $230 mil­lion of pub­lic funds. He was arrest­ed by the very same police offi­cials he named in his tes­ti­mo­ny. He was denied bail, legal reme­dies, and life-sav­ing med­ical help, and he died at the age of 37 after 358 days in deten­tion leav­ing a wife and two chil­dren. Since his death, the police offi­cials he named have been pro­mot­ed by the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry and have received top state hon­ours. It has also been revealed that the fam­i­lies of those police offi­cials enjoy lifestyles well above their offi­cial salaries. In par­tic­u­lar, accord­ing to pub­lished com­plaints, Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry Lt Col Artem Kuznetsov and his fam­i­ly own prop­er­ty and cars exceed­ing $3 mil­lion, despite his $10,000 a year offi­cial salary. His col­league, Major Pavel Kar­pov, and his fam­i­ly own prop­er­ty and cars worth in excess of $1 mil­lion despite his $6,000 a year offi­cial salary. In addi­tion, records have since sur­faced show­ing how both men have tak­en lux­u­ri­ous vaca­tions with their fam­i­lies since the embezzlement.

Despite those expen­di­tures being a mat­ter of pub­lic record and sub­ject of numer­ous com­plaints in Rus­sia, there has been no inves­ti­ga­tion into these offi­cials. On the con­trary, these indi­vid­u­als con­tin­ue to hold their posi­tions in the Russ­ian bureau­cra­cy, and their offi­cial pow­ers have grown.

Links to videos about Police­men in Mag­nit­sky case:
Video about Lt Col Kuznetsov: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZB3YoAvEro
Video about Major Kar­pov: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TWhlPqVddc

View assets of Lt Col Kuznetsov and Major Kar­pov above their offi­cial means:
http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/artem-kuznetsov/
http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/pavel-karpov/

Link to Vedo­mosti article:
http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article/253686/otkrytie_medvedeva

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