Five Russians blacklisted for human rights abuses

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The new sanctions were imposed under a 2012 law passed by Congress and named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer and whistleblower who died after spending a year in pre-trial detention for revealing tax fraud by Russian officials. The U.S. law requires sanctions against anyone who took part in Magnitsky’s abuse and death, or the subsequent coverup. It also allows for sanctions of people who took part in torture or other human rights abuses in other cases.

The five new names bring to 44 the number of people sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act. They are not allowed to obtain U.S. visas, and Americans are not permitted to have any dealings with them. The freezing of their assets applies to American banks, but since most international transactions are conducted in U.S. dollars, that in effect allows banks to seize any money the people on the list may try to wire.

The most high-profile name on the list is Aleksandr Bastrykin, the head of the federal Investigative Committee, the Russian equivalent of the FBI. He is suspected of participating in the coverup of Magnitsky’s torture and death. He also has been implicated in several other human rights abuses. When a Russian journalist wrote a story accusing Bastrykin of covering up a mass murder, Bastrykin threatened to behead and dismember the reporter, according to an open letter written by the reporter’s editor.

“You can call him Putin’s chief enforcer,” said Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor.

The new sanctions were imposed just three days after a U.S. intelligence assessment was made public saying Putin was involved in hacking Democratic emails in an effort to sway the presidential election. But Malinowski said the timing is coincidental. The State and Treasury departments add new names to list around this time every year.

President-elect Donald Trump has said that when he takes office in less than two weeks, he plans to work toward forging a warmer working relationship with Putin. One of the choices he will face is whether to ease sanctions related to Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. Sanctions under the Magnitsky law are difficult to lift, however.

“These were done pursuant to the law, which tells us if a particular person meets the criteria by virtue of having committed gross human rights abuses, he must be sanctioned,” said Malinowsky. “The United States government has now determined these people meet that criteria. It would be quite hard to reverse that factual judgment.”

Two other low-level Russian officials, Stanislav Gordievsky and Gennady Plaksin, were also blacklisted for allegedly playing a role in covering up Magnitsky’s death.

Also sanctioned were Andrei Lugovoi, a member of Russia’s lower house in parliament, and Dmitri Kovtun. British investigators have accused the two men of poisoning Aleksandr Litvinenko, a critic of the Kremlin, by putting plutonium in his tea at a London hotel in 2006.

(c) 2017, The Washington Post ยท Carol Morello

Image: Washington Post

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