According to Ekho Moskvy, Mityaev was arrested on November 7 – much earlier than other figures that fell under the federal probe. His parents complain that the arrestees are being subjected to a double standard: While Yevgenia Vasilyeva, former head of the Property Relations Department, is being held under house arrest, Mityaev was placed in pre-trial detention at Butyrka Prison. The latter is well-known as the prison where Hermitage Capital Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was murdered after being held for over a year and by being denied necessary medical attention. Mityaev’s parents say that he suffers from a serious heart condition and is similarly being denied proper care.

The situation is especially troubling for the Mityaev family given that, according to the arrestee’s mother, he had cooperated with federal investigators to help build the corruption case. She says he provided evidence on the Defense Ministry’s property sales and on who received “cuts” from those deals.

Mityaev is charged with accepting a bribe of 3 million rubles (about USD 97,000). According to investigators, he agreed to help sell Defense Ministry property in the Moscow suburb Shchelkovo in return for the bribe.

Ojuland, a member of the Liberal Democrats, is in charge of presenting a report to the European Parliament in September on an EP resolution that threatens visa and asset freezes against the Russian officials involved in Magnitsky’s death if they remain unprosecuted by the Russian judicial system. Kasparov and other oppositionists at the meeting emphasized the importance of this resolution at a time when the Putin regime has accelerated the persecution of activists in Russia.

Having just been arrested, tried, and acquitted of spurious administrative charges of holding an unsanctioned rally, as well as having been falsely accused (but not even charged) with biting a police officer, Kasparov was a prime example of the kind of persecution discussed during the meeting. At the same time, Kasparov’s acquittal was almost unprecedented among cases against Russian oppositionists, and he stressed that international lawmakers needed to provide leverage to help ensure that lawbreakers, such as those responsible for Magnitsky’s death, actually pay a price.

Aside from Kasparov’s case and the high-profile case of the punk group Pussy Riot, other recent repressive moves by the Putin regime include the conviction of Other Russia activist Taisiya Osipova, who was sentenced to eight years in prison, and a search by Russia’s Investigative Committee of blogger Aleksei Navalny’s parents’ business. Additionally, a Moscow court has upheld the legality of a raid on Navalny’s own apartment back in May, despite the fact that the warrant had a different address on it than the one police actually searched and confiscated computers and other materials from. Disturbingly, all three of these events occurred on Monday. A court upheld searches of oppositionists Ilya Yashin’s and Boris Nemtsov’s apartments earlier. All these cases clearly show that Kasparov’s acquittal was an isolated event.

Another oppositionist present at the meeting with Ojuland was A Just Russia deputy Dmitry Gudkov. He discussed the possibility that Gennady Gudkov – his father and another deputy from the same party – could be kicked out of the State Duma for allegedly illegally profiting from a business. He denies any wrongdoing and insists that the charges are politically motivated because of his support for the wave of mass anti-governmental rallies over this past winter.

Ojuland agreed. “We believe that this is a political process, and not something criminal. How can European Parliamentarians help their colleague in this situation? This Thursday, for example, at the interregional meeting of European Parliament deputies with State Duma and Federation Council deputies in St. Petersburg, we can put this issue on the agenda and hear about what exactly happened and what kind of legal basis there is for the case against Gudkov,” she said.

Despite the fact that this is a domestic Russian issue, Ojuland noted, it’s possible for the European Union, and the European Parliament in particular, to collegially try to help Gudkov.

In his latest op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov stresses the urgency of passing the Magnitsky Act – a US Senate bill that would block entry to the country and freeze the assets of 60 Russian officials involved with the cover-up and murder of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. In a significant move towards its eventual passage, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the bill on Wednesday.

How Obama Can Support Russia and Oppose Putin
By Garry Kasparov
June 27, 2012

President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for two hours last week during the Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. The meeting was described in the press as “chilly,” which is no surprise. For Mr. Obama, seeing Mr. Putin across from him was a concrete reminder that his administration’s “reset” policy has been a bust, that all the time spent promoting the fantasy of former president Dmitry Medvedev as a liberal alternative to Mr. Putin had been a waste.

Immediately prior to the G-20 summit, top Russian officials announced that Mr. Putin’s highest priority in meeting Mr. Obama would be the Magnitsky Act, a piece of pending U.S. legislation that would apply travel and financial sanctions against Russian functionaries complicit in the 2009 torture and murder of anticorruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Critically, the act can also be extended to those who commit similar crimes.

This was a startling admission for the Putin regime to make. I have long promoted the idea of going after the money and travel privileges of the Kremlin loyalists who keep Mr. Putin’s criminal regime operational. The surprise was his in effect confessing how afraid of the act he is. He clearly felt it necessary to publicly reassure his rank and file that he would fight to protect their ill-gotten wealth and lifestyles.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is focused on improving trade relations with Russia, emphasizing the need to repeal the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which prevents the U.S. from granting most-favored-nation status to countries that restrict emigration. In doing so she has argued that even the Russian opposition is in favor of repealing Jackson-Vanik.

This is a half-truth. We of the opposition are hardly of like mind on everything, but nearly all of us agree that it is important to replace the obsolete Jackson-Vanik Amendment with the Magnitsky Act instead of simply repealing it. The objective of such a law is to deter further human-rights violations in Russia by altering the climate of impunity.

Mr. Putin’s May 7 inauguration was followed by crackdowns against the pro-democracy movement, including raids on the homes of opposition leaders and their families and a massive raise in the fines and jail sentences for participating in demonstrations. While more than a dozen protesters are already behind bars, the raids and arrests continue. As ever, the application of the law is focused on punishing opposition activities that are supposed to be protected by the Russian constitution. The police and judiciary understand that by protecting Mr. Putin’s power, they gain ultimate immunity.

The Magnitsky Act would shake the foundation of Mr. Putin’s power base. It is less clear why the Obama administration has worked so hard to bury it. Abroad, Mr. Putin’s Russia continues to sell arms to the Assad dictatorship in Syria and generally do everything possible to keep the Middle East at a boil—the better to keep oil prices high.

In March, President Obama was overheard telling Mr. Medvedev he would have “more flexibility” to address Russian interests after his re-election. Yet Mr. Obama looks all too flexible already. Negotiating on trade or missile defense is all well and good, but when you put moral values on the table with a dictatorship you lose every time.

America should be siding with the Russian people, not with Mr. Putin. Russia is not America’s foe. We have much in common—struggles with radical Islam, concerns about Chinese influence and expansionism, real shared strategic interests. Mr. Putin’s Russia, on the other hand, is concerned only with power and the oil and gas profits needed to maintain it. Yes, a free Russia will compete with the U.S., but it will not be an unwavering adversary.

Ronald Reagan understood history and its lesson that appeasing dictators never works for long. By passing the Magnitsky Act, which was unanimously approved Tuesday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the United States will be supporting the Russian people, strengthening democracy and the rule of law, and protecting its own long-term interests. Being “flexible” on these issues will only prove the old saying that by standing for nothing, you will fall for anything.

Mr. Kasparov is the leader of the Russian pro-democracy group the United Civil Front and chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation. He lives in Moscow.

A version of this article appeared June 27, 2012, on page A17 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: How Obama Can Support Russia and Oppose Putin.

While it would be ideal to rely on the Russian justice system to bring these people to justice, time has shown that some type of additional pressure is needed. Enter Sergei’s Law, a US congressional bill that would bar the Russians involved in Magnitsky’s death from entering the United States:

If passed, the bill would send a signal to the Russian government that the treatment of people like Magnitsky is simply unacceptable and will not go without tangible consequences.

As the video shows, more information on how you can help get Sergei’s Law passed can be found at SergeisLaw.com.

On August 9, a Moscow regional court threw out a slander case by investigator Pavel Karpov against a group of human rights activists who say Karpov was found to have stolen budgetary money during the Magnitsky investigation.

Meanwhile, another slander lawsuit by Federal Prosecutor Andrei Pechegin against Magnitsky’s colleague, lawyer Jamison Firestone, is still ongoing. Pechegin is demanding that Firestone recant his statements that the prosecutor worked to hinder an objective investigation of the theft of 5.4 billion rubles from the Russian federal budget – which Magnitsky was investigating prior to his death – and also for persecuting Magnitsky.

Also on Tuesday, Magnitsky’s colleagues made a request for materials on 20 rejected complaints that he had made while being held in a Moscow pretrial detention facility, mostly regarding his deteriorating health condition.

For example, Magnitsky filed formal complaints that he was being denied medical procedures to treat pancreatitis and gallstones, that he was being unlawfully persecuted, and that his other rights were being violated. However, Prosecutor Pechegin had rejected these complaints and responded that there had been no physical or psychological pressure on Magnitsky and that there was no basis for any reaction on his part.

Russia has recently come under increasing international pressure as a result of Sergei Magnitsky’s death. On July 27, the US State Department announced a visa ban on several dozen Russia officials connected with the case, including a number from Russia’s federal security services, which the US considers party to Magnitsky’s “torture and murder.”

Russia responded with a statement that it would be introducing retaliatory sanctions against a group of American officials. Reports surfaced on Wednesday that the list had been prepared, which the Russian Internal Ministry denied.

Days after the United States State Department blacklisted a group of Russian officials involved in perpetrating the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the “reset” in relations between Russia and the US appears to be on the verge of faltering – despite general sentiments of improvement.

As Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports:

The White House touts its “reset” policy toward Russia as one of its key diplomatic successes. But the Russian authorities were caught off-guard when Washington quietly barred some of their officials from traveling to the United States this week, a move that threatens to undo some of the gains Washington has made boosting ties with Moscow.

The State Department blacklist targets those connected to a scandal that’s drawn widespread international condemnation: the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer jailed in 2009 after accusing police of bilking the government of more than $200 million. A report commissioned by President Dmitry Medvedev himself concluded Magnitsky was denied medical care and probably severely beaten before he died.

Magnitsky’s supporters have been lobbying Western countries to ban Russian officials implicated in Magnitsky’s death.

But speaking on a talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio, Leonid Slutsky, first deputy chairman of the Russian Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said he couldn’t believe the United States went ahead and did it, adding the information could have been made up as a provocation to harm ties.

The Kremlin soon reacted more strongly. Medvedev’s spokeswoman told the “Kommersant” newspaper the president was preparing retaliatory steps. “We were bewildered by the State Department’s action,” she said, adding that nothing like it happened “even in the deepest years of the Cold War.”

Ironically, the blacklist appears to have been intended to head off an effort to impose even stronger sanctions. A group of U.S. senators is sponsoring a bill that would include more Russian officials, freezing their U.S. assets in addition to denying them visas.

Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal “Russia in Global Affairs,” said the nuance seems to have been lost on Russian officials. “Everybody expected the U.S. Senate to act,” he said, “but the preventive or preemptive measure by the State Department was quite unexpected.”

Other signs of fraying ties emerged this week. Senator Jon Kyl (Republican, Arizona) has called for more investigation into a recent bomb blast outside the U.S. Embassy in Georgia that U.S. intelligence officials say may have been linked to a Russian agent. In Brussels on July 28, the Russian ambassador to NATO dredged up old complaints about plans for a U.S. missile-defense shield in Europe.

While relations between the two sides often appear precarious, the latest developments mark the biggest challenge to President Barack Obama’s Russia “reset.” The White House says its policy has delivered major gains for U.S. national security, including Russian cooperation over Afghanistan — for which Moscow is well-paid — help over sanctions against Iran, and the signing of the new START nuclear-arms treaty.

Another sea change has been much less visible. Under Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, cooperation between diplomats on various levels all but ended in favor of a direct dialogue between presidents. Much was made of their personal relationship, but when Bush left office, relations stood at Cold War lows.

The bureaucratic ties have since been restored. Russian diplomats say collaboration with their U.S. counterparts is even better now than in the relatively friendly 1990s. If decisions at top levels once took many weeks to implement, now agreements such as a recent deal over U.S. adoptions of Russian children can be put in place more quickly.

But top Russian officials threatened to curtail cooperation on Iran, Afghanistan, and North Korea over the Senate’s Magnitsky bill, according to a leaked State Department memo that first made the blacklist public on July 26.

Although the memo argued against stronger measures, political expert Andrei Piontkovsky said he thinks the Russian threats may have had the opposite of their intended effect. “My reading of this development is that people at the very top,” he said, “maybe the president himself, were shocked by such [direct] language and decided not to submit to blackmail.”

Observers said that although the memo was probably leaked to show the White House to be keen on protecting relations, the blacklist was nevertheless evidence of a significant change in Washington.

Masha Lipman of the Carnegie Center said it poses a challenge to the Russian leadership, shown to be unable to protect loyal officials from punishment abroad. “By now it’s well known denying visas to Russian officials is a sensitive spot that could potentially expand to other countries, to Europe,” she said, “which may be more important to Russian officials.”

The blacklist has been praised by Russian human rights activists and other critics who worry Washington has sacrificed support for Western values in favor of better relations with the Kremlin.

The U.S. action may help usher in a new, potentially rockier phase in the relationship. While the fate of the Senate’s Magnitsky bill remains unclear, the Russian parliament has been preparing its own bill in response.

But few believe cooperation over important issues will be affected. The Carnegie Center’s Lipman pointed out that previous incidents that could have worsened relations, such as revelations from U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks and Washington’s expulsion of 10 Russian intelligence agents last year, did not visibly affect ties.

Lukyanov of “Russia in Global Affairs” agreed the blacklist won’t change the nature of relations. “Of course it won’t contribute to a better relationship,” he said, “but I don’t think it will damage much because in areas where Russia and the United States cooperate now — like Afghanistan, nuclear disarmament, even Iran — both sides are interested in it.”

But Lukyanov said that even if relations suffer, Russian and U.S. politicians are focused on presidential elections in each of their countries next year, and will make no significant moves until 2013.

According to a press release sent by Hermitage Capital Management to TheOtherRussia.org on Monday, Dutch legislators made the decision while taking into account that “Sergei Magnitsky died while in detention in Russia under circumstances that give rise to suspicion, after he uncovered a massive corruption scheme, and also the fact that his case has exposed the deteriorating condition of the observance of human rights [in Russia], and acknowledging that, among a range of other measures, the US Senate and House of Representatives have taken initiatives connected with limiting the ability of Russian civil servants who have taken part in Magnitsky’s death to enter the country and freezing their assets.”

The representatives stressed that the situation was unacceptable and that Russian civil servants responsible for Magnitsky’s death remain unpunished more than a year and a half after the fact.

According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Russian Foreign Ministry has denounced the Dutch sanctions as “unacceptable.”

The Dutch vote follows a number of measures currently under consideration by US lawmakers to ban Russian civil servants connected with the case from the country. In April 2010, US Senator Benjamin Cardin sent a list of 60 people responsible for the lawyer’s persecution and death to the US State Department.

This past June, Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov presented US congressional leaders with a list of more than 300 Russian civil servants against whom he said the US should introduce visa sanctions on account of violations of Russia’s obligations under international law to respect civil rights and freedoms.

Kasparov called upon the US to annul the antiquated Jackson-Vanik amendment and introduce in its stead specific visa sanctions against “those [civil servants] who violate democratic and human rights in Russia.”

Russian lawmakers have threatened their Western counterparts with respective sanctions in the case that measures are taken against those involved in the Magnitsky case.

Representatives of Hermitage Capital expressed outrage at how Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has overseen the handling of the cases related to Magnitsky’s untimely death in a Moscow detention facility. Magnitsky himself had complained that Chaika’s actions violated his constitutional rights, says the press release.

Over the course of three and a half years, says Hermitage Capital, the Prosecutor General’s office and Yury Chaika personally actively impeded the investigation into unlawful actions by civil servants in Magnitsky’s case. Now they are trying unconvincingly to mask their criminal negligence, as well as, possibly, notorious actions that lead to the theft of more than 11 billion rubles ($393 million USD) from the treasury and the death of Magnitsky, who uncovered these crimes, say his colleagues.

“It is bewildering that the supervision of the investigation of Magnitsky’s case has been charged to the person bearing direct responsibility for the criminal inactivity and lack of supervision and proper reaction to Sergei Magnitsky’s numerous appeals about violations of his rights…a person whose actions themselves ought to be checked out first of all,” says Hermitage Capital.

On May 31, Yury Chaika received an order from President Medvedev “to intensify control over the course of investigation of the criminal cases connected with lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.”

Sergei Magnitsky was arrested in November 2008 after uncovering a tax fraud scheme that allegedly involved members of the Russian government, judiciary, mafia, and others. He spent 11 months in a pretrial detention facility on trumped-up charges of tax evasion. On November 16, 2009, Magnitsky died of apparent heart failure. His colleagues say the lawyer was denied medical treatment and that his death was directly brought about by the actions of Russian law enforcement officials.

Update: This article has been corrected from earlier versions. Please see statement below. We apologize for any misunderstanding.

Moscow’s Tverskoy Court has sanctioned a warrant to arrest Hermitage Capital Management executive Ivan Cherkasov in absentia, Gazeta.ru reports.

Interior Ministry investigator Oleg Silchenko had announced on May 3 that he was seeking the arrest of Cherkasov, a colleague of deceased lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who has lived in London since 2006, on the basis that the Hermitage Capital executive has failed to pay 2 billion rubles in taxes.

Cherkasov’s lawyers asked the judge to delay the court hearing for several days to give them time to study court materials and prepare their defense with Cherkasov himself. However, as lawyer Aleksandr Antipov told the BBC’s Russian service, this request was denied with no explanation as to why.

Antipov added that they would appeal the arrest in Moscow City Court, since, in his words, today’s decision by the Tverskoy Court has demonstrated the inobjective nature and dependence on investigators of the courts.

Hermitage Capital has issued a press release decrying the decision:

Late this evening, Judge Kovalevskaya of Moscow’s Tverskoy Court approved a request by Internal Affairs investigator Silchenko for the arrest in absentia of Ivan Cherkasov, a colleague of Sergei Magnitsky and partner of Hermitage Capital. Cherkasov’s lawyers consider the decision by Judge Kovalevskaya to be without basis, unlawful, and unconstitutional, and will appeal it in Russian courts as well as in the European Court of Human Rights.

The press release can be read in its entirety in Russian here.

Silchenko was the lead investigator in the case against Magnitsky for trumped-up charges of tax evasion, and his subsequent promotion following the lawyer’s scandalous death in a Moscow detention facility has drawn scathing criticism from human rights advocates and other supporters of Magnitsky, who say that Silchenko’s actions lead to the lawyer’s death. While the presidentially-ordered investigation is ongoing, nobody yet has been charged. An independent commission announced last week that Magnitsky’s arrest had been illegal.

According to Gazeta.ru, lawyers for Hermitage Capital sent a request to the Russian Internal Ministry on May 3 asking for Silchenko to be removed from the investigation of Magnitsky’s death. According to the lawyers, Silchenko has a possible personal stake in the outcome of the case. However, the request was turned down.

Earlier, Hermitage Capital CEO William Browder told The Independent that he believed the arrest warrant for Cherkasov to be retaliation for a video expose of the tax fraud case uncovered by Magnitsky that they posted on YouTube in mid-April:

“Clearly our expose has caused significant upset within the ranks of this criminal syndicate to the extent that we’ve shocked them into retaliation,” he said. “This is an escalation in the attack on us. The next logical step would be for the same corrupt officers to misuse the Interpol system or the extradition process in an attempt to further deflect attention away from the government corruption which we exposed. It shows that no-one is in control of Russia’s judicial system.”

The Independent also quoted a statement by Cherkasov denying the allegations:

“The highest levels of law enforcement in Russia have been abusing their offices for political, criminal and retaliatory purposes since this whole saga began,” he said. “It is being done shamelessly, and the whole world watches on in amazement. Either the Russian President and Prime Minister are powerless to fight officials who are stealing enormous amounts of state money, or they are direct beneficiaries. Either way, it is a terrible condemnation of what is happening in my country.”

Correction: This article previously quoted erronious Russian reports that the Russian Internal Ministry issued an “international arrest warrant” for Hermitage Capital CEO William Browder on May 4. The Russian reports, put out by ITAR-TASS and cited by numerous other Russian news agencies, mistook a quote by Internal Ministry investigator Oleg Silchenko about a request to Interpol by the Internal Ministry to have Browder placed on an international wanted list in connection with tax evasion charges for a new development, while the request was actually issued back in 2009. See this article by Reuters for details on the 2009 request. There are no actual new developments involving Browder. We apologize for any misunderstanding the original article may have caused.

A play based on the death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky is set to stage its North American premiere in Washington, DC on May 4, 2011.

The play, called “One Hour Eighteen,” is a highly acclaimed production based on excerpts from Magnitsky’s personal diary. As has been the case in Moscow since premiering last June, the play will be followed by a group discussion.

Sergei Magnitsky’s tragic death has become a symbol for those working to further human rights and the rule of law in Russia today. After uncovering a $230 million tax fraud case implicating a variety of Russian officials, bankers, and members of the mob, Magnitsky was arrested and placed in a Moscow detention facility. After eleven months of being denied proper medical care, he died without ever seeing trial in November 2009. What followed was an unprecedented global outcry demanding justice for what, upon closer inspection, appeared to be a case of premeditated murder. While a still-ongoing independent inquiry ordered by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev concluded last week that Magnitsky’s jailing and treatment was illegal, no charges have been filed in the case.

The play’s premiere in Washington could not be more timely, as Russian investigators announced this morning that they are seeking the arrest of one of Magnitsky’s colleagues, Ivan Cherkasov, in connection with his accusations that tax inspector Olga Stepanova was involved in the fraud Magnitsky uncovered. Stepanova was one of the central figures in a YouTube mini-doc released in April by Magnitsky’s supporters, where evidence is presented that she and three other inspectors garnered $42.9 million for aiding in the fraud.

A court is set to consider the motion on May 4.

The play will be staged on Wednesday, May 4 from 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. RSVP is required. Click here for more details.