Russia Bans Bill Browder’s New Book “Red Notice”, a Searing Exposé Featuring Putin’s Involvement in the Cover up of Sergei Magnitsky’s Murder

January 29, 2015

Rus­sia Bans Bill Brow­der’s New Book “Red Notice”, a Sear­ing Exposé Fea­tur­ing Putin’s Involve­ment in the Cov­er up of Sergei Magnitsky’s Murder

 

29 Jan­u­ary 2015 — On Feb­ru­ary 3^rd 2015, Bill Brow­der, CEO and founder of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, launch­es an explo­sive book about Rus­sia enti­tled “Red Notice: A true sto­ry of High Finance, Mur­der, and One Man’s Fight for Jus­tice” (UK edi­tion: “Red Notice, How I Became Putin’s Num­ber One Ene­my” pub­lished on 5^th February.)

 

“Red Notice” describes Brow­der’s fight against cor­rup­tion and impuni­ty in Rus­sia and is a dev­as­tat­ing exposé of how Putin and his regime will do any­thing to ille­gal­ly acquire wealth, includ­ing tor­ture and cov­er-up of murder.

 

“Any­body who pre­vi­ous­ly thought that Putin is a nor­mal leader or that Rus­sia is a nor­mal coun­try will think oth­er­wise after read­ing this book,” says Bill Browder.

 

“Red Notice” will be pub­lished in 14 coun­tries, but has so far been blocked by all major Russ­ian publishers.

 

Numer­ous Russ­ian pub­lish­ing hous­es, rang­ing from Eksmo to Alpina, have avoid­ed involve­ment in this book, for appar­ent fear of reprisal from the Putin regime.

 

Mem­bers of Pussy Riot, a Russ­ian punk group who have been jailed for an anti-Putin protest, described the Krem­lin posi­tion on Brow­der in their endorse­ment of “Red Notice” by saying:

 

“Bill Brow­der has become one of the most sin­cere­ly hat­ed men in the Krem­lin over the years — and that is some­thing to be incred­i­bly proud of… This book shows the dif­fer­ence that one per­son can make when they refuse to back down, as told by a fel­low sol­dier in the bat­tle to hold Putin to account.”

 

A Russ­ian ver­sion of “Red Notice” will be avail­able in the Russ­ian lan­guage and pub­lished out­side of Russia.

 

“This marks the return of the days of Sovi­et “samiz­dat” when books crit­i­cal of the Sovi­et gov­ern­ment were banned.  Many were pub­lished abroad, and then had to be secret­ly copied, cir­cu­lat­ed by hand and passed from read­er to read­er,” says Browder.

 

Some of the Sovi­et Union’s most acclaimed ‘samiz­dat’ authors were Var­lam Sha­la­m­ov and Alek­san­dr Solzhen­it­syn, both for­mer inmates of Stal­in’s gulag, who drew glob­al atten­tion to Joseph Stal­in’s forced labor camps, where mil­lions of Sovi­et cit­i­zens were sum­mar­i­ly interned and many ulti­mate­ly died.

 

To learn more, vis­it the ‘Red Notice’ book web­site: http://billbrowder.com

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign

+44 2074401777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

web­site: www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Face­book: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

 

Interpol Definitively Rejects Russia’s Request to Issue an International Arrest Warrant for Bill Browder

January 26, 2015

Inter­pol Defin­i­tive­ly Rejects Rus­si­a’s Request to Issue an Inter­na­tion­al Arrest War­rant for Bill Browder

 

26 Jan­u­ary 2015 — Inter­pol, the inter­na­tion­al police orga­ni­za­tion, has defin­i­tive­ly reject­ed Rus­si­a’s attempt to add Bill Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, to its Red Notice inter­na­tion­al arrest war­rant sys­tem. This is Rus­si­a’s third unsuc­cess­ful attempt to issue an Inter­pol Red Notice for Brow­der. A Red Notice would have meant that Brow­der would be arrest­ed at any inter­na­tion­al bor­der and poten­tial­ly extra­dit­ed back to Rus­sia. Over the last eight weeks, Inter­pol’s Com­mis­sion for the Con­trol of Files has reviewed Rus­si­a’s appli­ca­tion and con­clud­ed that the Russ­ian war­rant was ille­git­i­mate because it was “pre­dom­i­nant­ly political.”

 

This attempt by the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment fol­lows a long series of acts of retal­i­a­tion against Brow­der for his role in the suc­cess­ful pas­sage of the US Mag­nit­sky Act, which impos­es visa sanc­tions and asset freezes on Russ­ian offi­cials who killed Sergei Mag­nit­sky, were involved in the $230 mil­lion theft he had uncov­ered, or per­pe­trat­ed oth­er human rights abuses.
Pre­vi­ous­ly, Inter­pol refused two sim­i­lar requests from Rus­sia for Brow­der. In the sum­mer of 2014, Inter­pol said Rus­si­a’s requests to arrest Brow­der were invalid because they vio­lat­ed Interpol’s Con­sti­tu­tion which pro­hibits the orga­ni­za­tion to be used for polit­i­cal persecution.

 

Instead of com­ply­ing with the pre­vi­ous two Interpol’s rul­ings, the Russ­ian author­i­ties began an inten­sive high-lev­el lob­by­ing cam­paign to influ­ence Inter­pol to reverse their deci­sion. In Jan­u­ary 2014, the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Prosecutor’s Office dis­patched offi­cials to Lyon, France, where Inter­pol is head­quar­tered, who per­suad­ed Inter­pol to re-open the Brow­der case. To help con­vince Inter­pol, Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Putin invit­ed Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of Inter­pol Ron Noble to his pri­vate res­i­dence near Moscow at the end of Octo­ber 2014. Russ­ian author­i­ties also lob­bied Inter­pol mem­ber states to elect their rep­re­sen­ta­tive to Interpol’s gov­ern­ing body, the Exec­u­tive Committee.

 

To make their lat­est appli­ca­tion to Inter­pol for Brow­der, the Russ­ian author­i­ties used the posthu­mous tri­al against Brow­der’s mur­dered Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. This tri­al was con­demned around the world as a gross abuse of justice.

 

“This lat­est episode with Inter­pol is an impor­tant exam­ple of how Putin applies Rus­si­a’s sov­er­eign pow­er to abuse its mem­ber­ship in inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions. While the Inter­pol deci­sion was the cor­rect and right one, there are many oth­er vic­tims of the Russ­ian regime in less high-pro­file cas­es who are being unjust­ly arrest­ed in for­eign coun­tries as they flee polit­i­cal per­se­cu­tion in Rus­sia. It’s time that Russia’s fail­ing judi­cial sys­tem is tak­en into account by inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions for their con­stant abuse for polit­i­cal or cor­rupt motives,” said Bill Browder.

 

Next week, on Feb­ru­ary 3^rd 2015, Bill Brow­der will be respond­ing with his own “Red Notice” on Putin’s Russia.

 

Browder’s book enti­tled, “Red Notice: A true sto­ry of High Finance, Mur­der, and One Man’s Fight for Jus­tice” (UK edi­tion: “Red Notice, How I Became Putin’s Num­ber One Ene­my”) will be launched in the US and in the UK. Browder’s “Red Notice” will show that Putin is more akin to a crime boss than a legit­i­mate world leader.

 

To learn more vis­it the Red Notice book web­site: http://billbrowder.com

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign

 

+44 2074401777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

web­site: www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Face­book: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

 

 

Russian Investigative Committee Refuses Application from Magnitsky’s Mother to Bring to Account Those Responsible for Use of Rubber Batons on her Son in Detention

January 16, 2015

The Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee has refused the appli­ca­tion from Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er to bring to account those respon­si­ble for the use of rub­ber batons on her son before his death in detention.

Mr Veseliev, Deputy head of sec­tion of the Main Inves­tiga­tive Depart­ment of the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, stat­ed in refus­ing the appli­ca­tion that the deci­sion to ter­mi­nate the inves­ti­ga­tion was based on “the col­lec­tion of gath­ered evi­dence” and “was checked by the head of the inves­tiga­tive body and pros­e­cu­tor, no grounds to change the deci­sion were found.” The decree does not pro­vide any con­crete ground in rela­tion to the deci­sion not to inves­ti­gate the use of rub­ber batons.
The appli­ca­tion from Magnitsky’s moth­er stat­ed that the use of rub­ber batons was con­firmed by the post-mortem med­ical exam­i­na­tion, yet the inves­ti­ga­tion closed the crim­i­nal case into Magnitsky’s death with­out bring­ing to account those respon­si­ble. Her appli­ca­tion said:

“I request to con­duct a full probe by inves­tiga­tive means into the use of spe­cial means – metal­lic hand­cuffs and rub­ber batons — on 16 Novem­ber 2009 at the time when he [Mag­nit­sky] was deliv­ered in grave con­di­tion to Matrosskaya Tishi­na deten­tion cen­ter for the pur­pose of pro­vid­ing him with emer­gency med­ical care.”

Sergei Mag­nit­sky died on 16 Novem­ber 2009. Despite the con­clu­sions from four inde­pen­dent expert exam­i­na­tions that he was tor­tured in deten­tion, the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee has refused to investigate.

Russ­ian Inves­ti­ga­to­roftheIn­ves­tiga­tiveCom­mit­tee­An­dreiStrizhov, who closed the Mag­nit­sky death case investigation,andDeputyGeneralProsecutorofRussiaVictorGrin, the over­see­ing­pros­e­cu­tor, were both­sanc­tioned­by the US Gov­ern­ment attheend­ofDe­cem­ber 2014 fortheir­rolein con­ceal­ing the legal lia­bil­i­ty of per­sons respon­si­ble for Magnitsky’s ill-treat­ment and death, in accor­dance with the Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act of 2012

Следственный комитет России отказал матери Сергея Магнитского в расследовании обстоятельств применения к нему спецсредств перед гибелью

January 16, 2015

Следственный комитет России отказал матери Сергея Магнитского в проверке обстоятельств применения к ее сыну спецсредств – резиновой палки и наручников в следственном изоляторе «Матросская тишина». 

В постановлении заместителя руководителя первого отдела Главного следственного управления Следственного комитета А.М. Весельева говорится, что решение о прекращении уголовного дела по факту гибели Сергея Магнитского было принято «на основании совокупности собранных доказательств» и «было проверено руководителем следственного органа и прокурором, оснований для его отмены не усмотрено». В постановлении не указано, по какой причине следствием отказано в привлечении к ответственности лиц, причастных к применению к Магнитскому перед гибелью резиновых дубинок и наручников.

В заявлении матери Магнитского в Следственный комитет подчеркивалось, что факт причинения Магнитскому телесных повреждений подтверждается проведенной экспертизой, однако, в постановлении следствия о прекращении уголовного дела этому не дано оценки. В ее обращении говорилось:

«Прошу обязать следователя Стрижова А.А. провести полноценную проверку следственным путем по факту применения спецсредсвт – металлических наручников и резиновой палки 16 ноября 2009 года в период, когда он в тяжелом состоянии был доставлен в СИЗО «Матросская тишина» для оказания ему неотложной медицинской помощи.»

Сергей Магнитский погиб 16 ноября 2009 года. Несмотря на заключения четырех независимых экспертиз о применении к нему пыток и истязаний в следственном изоляторе, Следственный комитет отказался привлечь причастных лиц к ответственности.

Следователь Следственного комитета России Андрей Стрижов, подписавший постановление о прекращении расследования по факту гибели Магнитского в связи с «отсутствием события преступления», а также надзирающий за следствием заместитель Генерального прокурора Виктор Гринь в декабре 2014 года были включены в американский санкционный список лиц, которым запрещен въезд в США и чьи активы подлежат аресту в связи с их ролью в деле Магнитского. 

US Sanctions Four New Russian Officials on Magnitsky List Including Russian Deputy General Prosecutor Victor Grin

December 30, 2014

Today the US Gov­ern­ment released four new names of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials added to the U.S. Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions list, includ­ing Russia’s Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Vic­tor Grin.

Mr Grin is the high­est-rank­ing mem­ber of the Putin regime to be sanc­tioned to date under the Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act.

“Vic­tor Grin is sure­ly the most odi­ous char­ac­ter of all Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the Mag­nit­sky case, and it is cru­cial that he is being pub­licly sanc­tioned,” said a Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Сam­paign representative.

The announce­ment came short­ly after the sec­ond of anniver­sary of the pas­sage of the Mag­nit­sky Act and fol­low­ing the fifth anniver­sary of Sergei Magnitsky’s mur­der in Russ­ian police custody.

Two of the four sanc­tioned Russ­ian offi­cials played a spe­cif­ic role in the Mag­nit­sky case, and the oth­er two are offi­cials with respon­si­bil­i­ty in the Chech­nya region.

The most high pro­file new addi­tion to the sanc­tions list is Vic­tor Grin, Russia’s Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor, who was respon­si­ble for the cov­er-up of the tor­ture and killing of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in police cus­tody, the cov­er-up of the theft of $230 mil­lion from the state that Mag­nit­sky had exposed. He was also respon­si­ble for the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky three years after his death.

Major Andrei Strizhov, an inves­ti­ga­tor of the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, was also added to the Mag­nit­sky list. Last year, Strizhov was respon­si­ble for clos­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion into Sergei Magnitsky’s death with a find­ing of “no signs of a crime.” This find­ing came in spite of two inde­pen­dent reports from Rus­sia and two from abroad that found that Mag­nit­sky was sub­ject­ed to tor­ture, beat­en with rub­ber batons and oth­er abuses.

The U.S. Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions list now con­tains 34 names, includ­ing 28 who played a role in the Mag­nit­sky case.

“It is impor­tant we don’t  for­get that the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly has sub­mit­ted evi­dence of more than 280 indi­vid­u­als who should be sub­ject­ed to sanc­tions under the Mag­nit­sky Act. There is a lot more work to be done for the US Gov­ern­ment to ful­fill its oblig­a­tions under the Mag­nit­sky Act,” said a Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Сam­paign representative.

 The pub­li­ca­tion of the list has coin­cid­ed with the pub­li­ca­tion of the annu­al report by the U.S. State Depart­ment on the imple­men­ta­tion of the Mag­nit­sky law, in which the State Depart­ment has explained the cri­te­ria involved:

“The cri­te­ria include per­sons involved in the crim­i­nal con­spir­a­cy uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a Russ­ian lawyer who died of med­ical neglect on Novem­ber 16, 2009, after a year in pre-tri­al deten­tion in a Moscow prison, after he uncov­ered a large tax fraud scheme per­pe­trat­ed by Russ­ian officials.”

The Mag­nit­sky Law was passed in Decem­ber 2012. The first Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions list was pub­lished by the U.S. Gov­ern­ment in April 2013. The addi­tions of names to the Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions List gen­er­al­ly hap­pens in con­junc­tion with the pub­li­ca­tion of the U.S. State Depart­ment report on the imple­men­ta­tion of the Mag­nit­sky Law or in reac­tion to a “con­gres­sion­al trig­ger” in which chair­man and rank­ing mem­bers of cer­tain con­gres­sion­al com­mit­tees can request for names to be added to the list.

Back­ground Infor­ma­tion on Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Vic­tor Grin:

 Vic­tor Grin serves as Russia’s Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor. He over­saw a probe into the com­plaint filed by the Her­mitage Fund’s lawyers report­ing abuse of office by Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials three weeks before the $230 mil­lion was stolen which led to Magnitsky’s death. In spite of receiv­ing the report, Grin failed to con­duct any inves­ti­ga­tion and three weeks lat­er, a group of Russ­ian offi­cials and crim­i­nals stole $230 mil­lion from the Russ­ian treasury.

On 10 April 2009, Grin signed an indict­ment, which exon­er­at­ed all Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry and tax offi­cials that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had exposed in the $230 mil­lion theft.

On 6 Novem­ber 2009, ten days before Sergei Magnitsky’s death in cus­tody, pros­e­cu­tor Grin was assigned to over­see the probe into the com­plaint about Magnitsky’s ill-treat­ment and denial of med­ical care in cus­tody filed by Magnitsky’s col­league Jami­son Fire­stone. Grin failed to con­duct any such probe, and ten days lat­er Sergei Mag­nit­sky was mur­dered in custody.

After Sergei Magnitsky’s death, Grin was put in charge of super­vis­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion into Sergei Magnitsky’s death. In this capac­i­ty, he issued a report find­ing no vio­la­tions in the actions of Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials who arrest­ed and pros­e­cut­ed Mag­nit­sky, which was used to jus­ti­fy the clo­sure of the death case investigation.

Two and half years after Magnitsky’s death, in retal­i­a­tion to calls from the Magnitsky’s fam­i­ly for jus­tice, Grin per­son­al­ly ini­ti­at­ed two posthu­mous cas­es against Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Rus­sia, includ­ing one which end­ed with the first-ever posthu­mous tri­al in Russ­ian his­to­ry last July, and anoth­er one which is still ongoing.

For fur­ther mate­ri­als on Russ­ian Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Vic­tor Grin go to “Russ­ian Untouch­ables. Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky” web­site and vis­it page “Mag­nit­sky Case Cov­er up Revealed in Per­sons and Doc­u­ments”.

Back­ground Infor­ma­tion on Inves­ti­ga­tor Andrei Strizhov:

The sec­ond Russ­ian offi­cial added to the Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions List today is Major Andrei Strizhov. Strizhov is an inves­ti­ga­tor work­ing in Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee who was respon­si­ble for clos­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion into Magnitsky’s death. In his report, he found “no crime.” He also has refused requests from the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly to allow them to con­duct inde­pen­dent med­ical exam­i­na­tion of Magnitsky’s tis­sue archive or for their lawyer to ques­tion FSB and Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials respon­si­ble for his detention.

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