Magnitsky Act

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Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012
Great Seal of the United States
Long title An Act To authorize the extension of nondiscriminatory treatment (normal trade relations treatment) to products of the Russian Federation and Moldova and to require reports on the compliance of the Russian Federation with its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization, and for other purposes.
Nicknames Magnitsky Act
Enacted by the 112th United States Congress
Citations
Public law Pub.L. 112–208
Statutes at Large 126 Stat. 1496
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the House as "Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal Act of 2012" (H.R. 6156) by Dave Camp (R-MI) on July 19, 2012
  • Committee consideration by House Ways and Means
  • Passed the House on November 16, 2012 (365–43)
  • Passed the Senate on December 6, 2012 (92–4)
  • Signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 14, 2012

The Magnitsky Act, formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and President Obama in November–December 2012, intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009.

Background

In 2009, Russian lawyer and auditor Sergei Magnitsky died in a Moscow prison after investigating fraud involving Russian tax officials. While in prison, Magnitsky developed gall stones, pancreatitis and calculous cholecystitis and was refused medical treatment for months. Finally, after almost a year of imprisonment and on the verge of death, Magnitsky was transferred to a Moscow hospital. There he was greeted not by a doctor but by a number of Russian OMON who bludgeoned him to death.[1][2]

Law

In June 2012, the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs reported to the House a bill called the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 (H.R. 4405).[3] The main intention of the law was to punish Russian officials who were thought to be responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitsky by prohibiting their entrance to the United States and their use of its banking system.[4] The legislation was taken up by a Senate panel the next week, sponsored by Senator Ben Cardin, and cited in a broader review of the mounting tensions in the international relationship.[5][6]

In November 2012, provisions of the Magnitsky bill were attached to a House bill (H.R. 6156) normalizing trade with Russia (i.e. repealing the Jackson–Vanik amendment) and Moldova.[7] On December 6, 2012, the U.S. Senate passed the House version of the law.[4] The law was signed by President Barack Obama on December 14, 2012.[8][9][10][11][12]

Individuals affected

The Obama administration made public a list of 18 individuals affected by the Act in April 2013.[13][14][15] The people included on the list are:

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  • Artyom Kuznetsov, a tax investigator for the Moscow division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
  • Pavel Karpov, a senior investigator for the Moscow division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
  • Oleg F. Silchenko, a senior investigator for the Ministry of Internal Affairs
  • Olga Stepanova, head of Moscow Tax Office No. 28
  • Yelena Stashina, Tverskoy District Court judge who prolonged Magnitsky's detention
  • Andrey Pechegin, deputy head of the investigation supervision division of the general prosecutor's office
  • Aleksey Droganov
  • Yelena Khimina
  • Dmitriy Komnov
  • Aleksey Krivoruchko, Tverskoy District Court judge
  • Oleg Logunov
  • Sergei G. Podoprigorov, Tverskoy District Court judge
  • Ivan Pavlovitch Prokopenko
  • Dmitri M. Tolchinskiy
  • Svetlana Ukhnalyova
  • Natalya V. Vinogradova
  • Kazbek Dukuzov, Chechen acquitted of the murder of Paul Klebnikov
  • Lecha Bogatyrov, implicated by Austrian authorities as the murderer of Umar Israilov

Russian government reaction

Natalia Veselnitskaya is a "Russian lawyer whose clients include Russian "state-owned businesses", including Petr Katsyv's son, Denis Katsyv. The latter owns Prevezon Holdings, an investment firm, and his father is the "vice president of the state-owned Russian Railways and a former deputy governor of the Moscow region". Veselnitskaya is known for leading a "multi-pronged" attack against "the Magnitsky Act, which provoked a Cold War-style, tit-for-tat row with the Kremlin when President Barack Obama signed it into law in 2012".[16] Veselnitskaya's campaign included an unsuccessful attempt in Washington to repeal the Act and to "keep Mr. Magnitsky’s name off the Law.[16] She was "also deeply involved in the making of The Magnitsky Act — Behind the Scenes — an anti-Magnitsky film that premiered in June 2016. She provided the film crew with "the real proofs and records of testimony" according to RussiaTV5, a "station whose owners are known to be close to Mr. Putin".[16] In response to the adoption of the Magnitsky Act, the Russian government denied Americans adoption of Russian children, issued a list of US officials prohibited from entering Russia, and posthumously convicted Magnitsky as guilty.[17] In addition, the Russian government reportedly lobbied against the legislation acting through a public relations company led by Kenneth Duberstein.[18][19]

Ban on U.S. adoption of Russian children

On December 19, 2012, the State Duma voted 400 to 4 to ban the international adoption of Russian children into the United States. The bill was unofficially named after Dmitri Yakovlev (Chase Harrison), a Russian toddler who died in 2008 of heat stroke after neglect from his adoptive American father.[20][21] Other recent developments include the proposition of a law to prevent US citizens from working with political NGOs in Russia and a proposition of a law, recently abandoned, preventing any foreigner from speaking on state television if they discredited the state.[22]

Banning some U.S. officials from Russia

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Main article: Guantanamo list

On April 13, 2013, Russia released a list naming 18 Americans banned from entering the Russian Federation over their alleged human rights violations, as a direct response to the Magnitsky list.[23] The people banned from Russia are listed below:

US officials involved in legalizing torture and indefinite detention of prisoners:

The Russian lawmakers also banned several U.S. officials involved in the prosecution and trial of Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout and drug smuggler Konstantin Yaroshenko, both serving prison time in the United States:[24][25]

  • Jed Rakoff, Senior US District Judge for the Southern District of New York
  • Preet Bharara, former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York
  • Michael J. Garcia, former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York
  • Brendan R. McGuire, Assistant US Attorney
  • Anjan S. Sahni, Assistant US Attorney
  • Christian R. Everdell, Assistant US Attorney
  • Jenna Minicucci Dabbs, Assistant US Attorney
  • Christopher L. Lavigne, Assistant US Attorney
  • Michael Max Rosensaft, Assistant US Attorney
  • Louis J. Milione, Special Agent, US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
  • Sam Gaye, Senior Special Agent, US DEA
  • Robert F. Zachariasiewicz, Special Agent, US DEA
  • Derek S. Odney, Special Agent, US DEA
  • Gregory A. Coleman, Special Agent, US Federal Bureau of Investigation[23]

Reception

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Australian expatriate jurist Geoffrey Robertson, who is representing some of the Magnitsky campaigners, has described the Act as "one of the most important new developments in human rights". He says it provides "a way of getting at the Auschwitz train drivers, the apparatchiks, the people who make a little bit of money from human rights abuses and generally keep under the radar."[26]

State Duma deputy Yevgeny Fedorov argued that the real purpose of the Magnitsky bill was to manipulate key figures in big business and government, with the aim of pro-American policy in the Russian Federation.[27]

The Ministry of Internal Affairs Directorate for Special Affairs in the U.K. stated that it is aware of those on the list. The U.K. bans travel of those on the list under existing legislation which prohibits entry for those implicated in cases of human rights violations.[28]

The World Socialist Web Site condemned the United States for only invoking human rights as a cover for realpolitik, stating that Washington had supported "far greater crimes, [such] as when Boris Yeltsin in 1993 ordered bombardment of the Russian White House, the seat of the country’s parliament, killing over 1,000 people".[29]

In March 2015, the parliament of Canada passed an initial motion towards passing such a law.[30]

January 2017 blacklisting

On January 9, 2017, under the Magnitsky Act, the United States Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its Specially Designated Nationals List and blacklisted Aleksandr I. Bastrykin, Andrei K. Lugovoi, Dmitri V. Kovtun, Stanislav Gordievsky, and Gennady Plaksin, which froze any of their assets held by American financial institutions or transactions with those institutions and banned their travelling to the United States.[31][32]

Implementation oversight in 2017

The Associated Press published an opinion piece on February 9, 2017, arguing that Congress should preserve the act.[33] President Donald Trump gave a memorandum to Congress on the implementation of the act on April 21, 2017.[34]

In May 2017 US authorities came to an agreement with Prevezon, one of companies used for laundering the money exfiltrated from Russia as result of the fraud discovered by Sergey Magnitsky, based on which the real-estate company agreed to pay $5.8 million fine.[35][36]

Also in May 2016 an investigation was started on £6.6m that was allegedly transferred from the fraud scheme into a banking firm in the UK.[37]


See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ ""Russia Human Rights Legislation Passes Foreign Affairs Committee" [committee press release]. June 07, 2012. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Baker, Peter, "Syria Crisis and Putin’s Return Chill U.S. Ties With Russia", The New York Times, June 13, 2012. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Unlawful Arrest by Vladimir Abarinov
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Tom Jackman, Toddler’s tragic death in Herndon, in overheated car, continues as political issue in Russia four years later. Washington Post, 12/12/2012
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Yevgeny Fedorov: Magnitsky Act – manipulation // RUSSIA.RU
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ “All parties signal support for Magnitsky law to sanction Russian officials” in the Globe and Mail, 2015-03-25.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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