Surprising Statement from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Criticising the “Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act”

October 1, 2010

Today the Russ­ian Min­istry of For­eign Affairs attacked a num­ber of US Sen­a­tors and Rep­re­sen­ta­tives who co-spon­sored the ‘Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2010’ in the US Con­gress. The state­ment pub­lished on the For­eign Ministry’s offi­cial web­site said that the new law, which intro­duces US visa and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions on peo­ple respon­si­ble for the tor­ture and mur­der in Inte­ri­or Min­istry cus­tody of Mr Mag­nit­sky, a 37 year-old Russ­ian anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer and father of two, “goes beyond stan­dards decen­cy,” and “threat­ens inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion among law enforce­ment agen­cies in areas of organ­ised crime.”

A Her­mitage Cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tive made the fol­low­ing comment:

“It is sur­pris­ing that the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment would tar­nish its own rep­u­ta­tion by pub­licly pro­tect­ing the offi­cers who were involved in the tor­ture and mur­der of an inno­cent man. It is even more iron­ic that the law enforce­ment offi­cials who per­pe­trat­ed the largest tax rebate fraud in Russ­ian his­to­ry are now threat­en­ing to with­draw from ‘coop­er­a­tion’ in fight­ing organ­ised crime.”

“The For­eign Min­istry in Moscow should instead be call­ing on Russia’s own law enforce­ment agen­cies to pros­e­cute the offi­cials who killed Sergei Mag­nit­sky instead of crit­i­cis­ing US law­mak­ers who are seek­ing jus­tice for a hero who died stand­ing up against cor­rup­tion,” con­tin­ued a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

Ear­li­er today, the lead­ing US Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor, John McCain announced that he is an orig­i­nal co-spon­sor of the ‘Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2010’ bill, along­side Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor, Ben­jamin Cardin.

Sen­a­tor McCain said:

“Sergei Mag­nit­sky was an ordi­nary man, but through his extra­or­di­nary courage and love for his coun­try, he exposed the cru­elest and most cor­rupt aspects of the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment today. Sergei Mag­nit­sky did not spend his life as a human rights advo­cate, but his life was tak­en because of his unbreak­able com­mit­ment to human dig­ni­ty and his endur­ing hope that Rus­sia deserves to be gov­erned by the rule of law, not the whim of thieves.”

“I am pleased to join with Sen. Ben Cardin in co-spon­sor­ing the ‘Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act.’ The Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment must do every­thing in its pow­er to iden­ti­fy those respon­si­ble for the death this Russ­ian patri­ot, to make their names famous for the whole world to know, and then to hold them account­able for their crimes. That is the pur­pose of our leg­is­la­tion,” said Sen­a­tor McCain.

John McCain was the Repub­li­can Party’s nom­i­nee for Pres­i­dent in 2008. Dur­ing the Viet­nam war, he was a pris­on­er of war for five years in Hanoi, where he expe­ri­enced episodes of tor­ture and refused an out-of-sequence repa­tri­a­tion offer. He is run­ning for a fifth Sen­ate term in 2010.

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