Prominent Russian Duma Representative Suggests Hermitage Was Behind Magnitsky’s Death

January 22, 2014

Promi­nent Russ­ian Duma Mem­ber, Chair of Inter­na­tion­al Affairs Com­mit­tee Alex­ei Pushkov came out today alleg­ing Her­mitage could have been behind Magnitsky’s death, and “was to ben­e­fit” from it because Mag­nit­sky “could have giv­en seri­ous infor­ma­tion against Brow­der” (http://ria.ru/world/20140122/990696164.html). Pushkov made his state­ment on the eve of the vote by the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe on the res­o­lu­tion and report called “Refus­ing Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky.”
“Today’s state­ment by Pushkov is a clear demon­stra­tion that the Putin regime is deter­mined to pro­tect those who killed Sergei Mag­nit­sky in spite of over­whelm­ing evi­dence and the clear con­clu­sions by the Rap­por­teur to the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe of the Russ­ian gov­ern­men­t’s com­plic­i­ty,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.
The 53-page report pre­pared for the Coun­cil of Europe by Swiss MP, Rap­por­teur Andreas Gross, details “the mas­sive cov­er-up involv­ing senior offi­cials of the com­pe­tent min­istries, the Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee and even cer­tain courts” (report is avail­able here: http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-DocDetails-EN.asp?fileid=20084&wrqid=0&wrqref=&ref=1&lang=EN).
The report has been approved by the PACE’s Com­mit­tee for Legal Affairs and Human Rights.
The res­o­lu­tion to be debat­ed next week by PACE will con­sid­er the issue of sanc­tions in light of the ongo­ing impuni­ty of those respon­si­ble for Magnitsky’s ill-treat­ment and killing. 

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