Obama administration to list human rights abusers in Russia: Report

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has designated 18 people under a law requiring a list of alleged abusers of human rights in Russia, the U.S. Treasury said on Friday, in a move that could cause more friction in the U.S. relationship with Moscow.

The list includes 16 people directly related to the case of Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, who died in his jail cell in 2009, as well as two others, a congressional source said. The people named on the list will be subject to visa bans and asset freezes in the United States under a law passed by Congress last year.

Publication of the list could aggravate U.S.-Russia relations, already strained by what critics say is a crackdown on dissent in Russia under President Vladimir Putin, and disputes over security issues such as the war in Syria.

"The appearance of any lists will doubtless have a very negative effect on bilateral Russian-American relations," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Siberia earlier on Friday.

The U.S. list was published three days before President Barack Obama's national security adviser, Tom Donilon, is due in Moscow for talks which Russia said would include U.S. missile defense plans.

The names on the list released by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control included several officials who worked in the Russian Interior Ministry, and others who worked in courts, prosecutors' or tax offices.

Also listed was Kazbek Dukuzov, one of two natives of the Chechnya region who were tried for the 2004 killing in Moscow of American journalist Paul Klebnikov, and acquitted in 2006.

Congress passed the Magnitsky Act in December as part of a broader bill to expand U.S. trade with Russia. The Obama administration was never keen on the Magnitsky provisions, but the president signed the bill in December.

The law requires the administration to draw up an initial list by Saturday of people linked to the Magnitsky case or to other alleged "gross violations of internationally-recognized human rights" in Russia.

'SIGNIFICANT OMISSIONS'

Representative James McGovern, one of the sponsors of the Magnitsky Act, called the list "timid" with "significant omissions." But McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said he had been assured by the administration that the investigation was continuing and more names would be added as new evidence came to light.

Russia considers the Magnitsky Act outside interference in its affairs, and warns it may respond by issuing a list of alleged U.S. human rights abusers. Moscow has already retaliated by outlawing adoptions of Russian children by American couples.

Magnitsky worked for the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management in Moscow and was arrested on tax fraud charges shortly after he leveled similar accusations against Russian state officials in 2008.

Putin has said that Magnitsky's death at age 37 was caused by heart failure. But the Kremlin's own human rights council has aired suspicions that Magnitsky was beaten to death. His death spooked investors and tarnished Russia's image abroad.

The list released by the U.S. Treasury included a number of people U.S. lawmakers and rights activists have urged be listed because of alleged links to the jailing of Magnitsky or a cover-up over his death.

The list included Oleg Silchenko, a senior investigator at the federal Interior Ministry, who was allegedly in charge of the investigation into Magnitsky and ordered his detention.

It also named Pavel Karpov, a senior investigator in the Moscow division of Interior Ministry at the time of the 2007 police raids on the Hermitage Capital Management, and Artyom Kuznetsov, another Interior Ministry official who allegedly took part in the police raids.

Karpov, who has initiated a libel case against William Browder, the chief of Hermitage Capital, denied the accusations.

"I am expecting soon the decision from the high court of London which will confirm the falsehood of the accusation" Karpov told Interfax.

The list also included Olga Stepanova, an official from the Moscow Tax Office that authorized part of a $230 million tax refund that Magnitsky had told officials was suspect.

Another name on the list was Yelena Stashina, a judge who allegedly prolonged Magnitsky's detention, and Andrey Pechegin, who worked in the general prosecutor's office and allegedly denied complaints from Magnitsky about his treatment.

In addition to Dukuzov, the other name unrelated to the Magnitsky case was Lecha Bogatyrov. Bogatyrov has been implicated as the killer of Umar Israilov, a former bodyguard of Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov who became a critic of Kadyrov and was shot dead in Vienna in 2009. Bogatyrov reportedly escaped arrest and returned to Russia.

(Additional reporting by Doug Palmer in Washington and Steve Gutterman and Thomas Grove in Moscow; Editing by Vicki Allen and Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-administration-list-18-alleged-human-rights-abusers-151708231.html

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