The Americans approved in the Senate (92 in favor, 4 against) the "Magnitsky Act", which imposes sanctions on our officials, investigators, cops, and judges implicated in his (Magnitsky’s) case.
Our Foreign Ministry called it "a performance in the theater of the absurd."
If we’re going to use metaphors like that, then I’d call the behavior of the Foreign Ministry and our officials, who are panic-stricken over these sanctions, "a fire in a brothel."
The "Magnitsky Act" is entirely pro-Russian. It is aimed at punishing the scumbags who stole 5.4 billion rubles from Russian taxpayers, moved the money abroad, and then tortured and killed a Russian citizen.
Let me briefly remind you once again what the "Magnitsky case" is about.
A gang of investigators and cops seized documents from several commercial firms during searches. Using forged paperwork, they transferred those firms to other people. Then, acting in the firms’ names, they went to Tax Inspectorate No. 28, claiming that the firms had "overpaid" 5.4 billion rubles in profit tax and asking for it to be refunded. The head of Tax Office No. 28, Olga Stepanova (a close friend of former minister Serdyukov, who later moved with him into Defense Ministry structures and was clearly acting in coordination with him), approved the request INSTANTLY, and the state budget transferred 5.4 billion rubles to the crooks. The money vanished through shell companies. Later, tax official Stepanova and her husband were found to own villas and apartments in Dubai, property on Rublyovka (an elite suburban area outside Moscow), and bank accounts in Switzerland.
Auditor and lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered this entire scheme and began filing complaints, was arrested by the same police thugs who had stolen the firms. Magnitsky was held in unbearable conditions and denied medical care. They waited for him to die. Magnitsky filed dozens of complaints. Not a single one was upheld. Supposedly, he did not need medical treatment. After yet another transfer from one pretrial detention center to another, he was beaten for demanding medical care.
The ambulance that arrived was kept waiting for a long time before being let in, and it all ended tragically.
Everything is laid out here in a fairly accessible way, but in detail and with all the documents.
The "Magnitsky case" is one of the most notorious crimes in recent history. What do we have now: the investigators, cops, FSB officers, judges, and everyone else involved are sitting pretty. They drive Mercedeses and live in apartments worth millions of dollars. those who arranged the transfer of the billions are sitting pretty too. They live in their villas. And if you don’t like it, they’ll even sue you and win. the formal investigation into the theft of 5.4 billion rubles ended with four random nobodies being named as the culprits. By an amazing coincidence, all of them are dead. Magnitsky is in the ground.
It is a disgrace and a shame that the United States is imposing sanctions on these bandits and executioners while Russia hides them, protects them, and pampers them.
Minister Lavrov and the rest are not afraid of interference in Russia’s "internal affairs." What worries him is that his own comfortable life abroad might come under threat. I’d bet Lavrov’s kids study at Columbia University in New York City. Putin’s daughters live abroad. The crook Shuvalov owns property in Austria bought with bribe money.
And so on and so forth.
Don’t confuse Russia’s interests with officials’ fear for their corrupt savings in foreign banks.
Congratulations to everyone who worked to get the "Magnitsky Act" passed. It is a major success in the interests of ordinary Russian citizens.
Let’s hope that one day it will be repealed, because there will no longer be any need for it. All those responsible will be punished in Russia too, without any Americans having to step in.