Senior Russian Senator Narusova Splits with the Russian Interior Ministry and Calls for Prosecution of Law Enforcement Officials in the Magnitsky Case

February 26, 2012

In an unex­pect­ed devel­op­ment, at the OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly in Vien­na last week, Lud­mi­la Naruso­va, wid­ow of for­mer St. Peters­burg may­or Ana­toly Sobchak and a senior Fed­er­a­tion Coun­cil mem­ber from the Bryan­sk region, pub­licly called for the pros­e­cu­tion of Russ­ian law enforce­ment offi­cials named by Pres­i­dent Medvede­v’s Human Rights Coun­cil as com­plic­it in the false arrest and mur­der of Sergei Magnitsky.

“Human rights activists are call­ing for the expan­sion of the list of those who are being pros­e­cut­ed in the Mag­nit­sky case. With our sup­port, they are urg­ing for the charges to be brought against law enforce­ment offi­cers, and doc­tor Alexan­dra Gaus who saw Mag­nit­sky last… It is impor­tant for us so that pun­ish­ment is inevitable,” said Ms Narusova.

Ms Narusova’s call for law enforce­ment pros­e­cu­tions is in direct con­flict with the posi­tion of the Russ­ian author­i­ties who pub­licly exon­er­at­ed all Russ­ian law enforce­ment offi­cials involved in the Mag­nit­sky case and then reward­ed them with pro­mo­tions and medals instead. Last year the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor’s Office for­mal­ly absolved all Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers from any wrong­do­ing in the Mag­nit­sky case. In addi­tion, last July, Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Ministry’s Gen­er­al Tatiana Gerasi­mo­va for­mal­ly dis­missed the con­clu­sions of the Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil on the Mag­nit­sky case stat­ing that Russ­ian courts and pros­e­cu­tors found no vio­la­tions of the law. The Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee also refused to inves­ti­gate the sud­den enrich­ment of the law enforce­ment offi­cials’ fam­i­lies after they par­tic­i­pat­ed in the $230 mil­lion theft exposed by Mr Mag­nit­sky.

“This pub­lic state­ment by Naruso­va shows a crack in the Russ­ian gov­ern­men­t’s cov­er up of the tor­ture and mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in state cus­tody,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative. 

“There is no longer a uni­fied posi­tion among all Russ­ian pub­lic bod­ies that all offi­cials are inno­cent. While Ms Naruso­va had a num­ber of facts wrong in her speech, we are pleased that she is call­ing for pros­e­cu­tions of law enforce­ment offi­cers,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

In the after­math of Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s death, twen­ty senior prison offi­cials were fired and it was announced that all the fir­ings were due to Mag­nit­sky’s death. How­ev­er, since then, it has become aparent that only one of the offi­cials who was fired had any involve­ment in the Mag­nit­sky case. The rest served in oth­er func­tions and regions many miles away from Moscow.

After the pub­li­ca­tion of Pres­i­dent Medvede­v’s Human Rights Coun­cil report, the Russ­ian inves­tiga­tive author­i­ties for­mal­ly reject­ed the find­ings and then opened the unprecenet­ed posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of Mr Mag­nit­sky him­self. The same Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cers who false­ly arrest­ed and tor­tured Sergei Mag­nit­sky, have sum­moned his wid­ow and moth­er for ques­tion­ing. Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s moth­er denounced their actions as designed to sup­press the fam­i­ly’s calls for justice.

Ms Narusova’s call for pros­e­cu­tions of Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials fol­lows her daugh­ter Kseniya Sobchak’s release of a viral Youtube video mock­ing Prime Min­is­ter Vladimir Putin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxEWddT44BY&feature=youtu.be). In the video, Kseniya Sobchak cre­at­ed a satire of recent Russ­ian pub­lic fig­ures who have been pres­sured to state their sup­port for Putin. In her video, the first half shows her mak­ing state­ments in sup­port of Putin. In the sec­ond half, she is shown being threat­ened by unknown FSB agents to make those state­ments. The video has been viewed more than one mil­lion times since its release on Feb­ru­ary 19^th, 2012. 

See the speech by Lyud­mi­la Naruso­va at the Gen­er­al Com­mit­tee on Democ­ra­cy, Human Rights and Human­i­tar­i­an Ques­tions of the OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly morn­ing ses­sion (at 2:32):
http://www.oscepa.org/meetings/winter-meetings/894‑2012-winter-meeting-streaming-videos

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