The widow of Sergei Magnitsky with his corpse, during his 2009
funeral
in Moscow: His death in a
Russian prison, after implicating top officials
in a complex scheme to
defraud the government, is widely regarded as
a murder-cover-up in the
West. His case is now a rallying cry for those
wanting to
combat Russian corruption.
The Magnitsky List,
America’s ‘Secret’ Weapon! (YezhednevniyZhurnal, Russia)
“In response to
the death in prison of a lawyer who uncovered an embezzlement scheme by bigwigs
at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Internal Revenue Service, the yanks are
going to block respected people in law enforcement from entering the United States
(which is not exactly a death sentence), and even (this is the worst part) freeze
their accounts in the American banks. That hits where it hurts!”
Sergei Magnitsky: His death in a Russian prison, after implicating top officials in a scheme to defraud the government, is widely regarded as a murder-cover-up in the West. Moscow is warning the if the U.S. Congress passes the Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act as punishment, Russia will react in kind against Americans regarded by the Kremlin as human rights abusers in places like Guantanamo and Iraq.
We have adequate if only asymmetrical measures up our sleeve to
respond to every insidious maneuver of those damned yanks (they, who are mired
in economic crisis and a looming presidential election, and dream of playing
some nasty trick on the eternally-rising-from-its-knees Russia). To their anti-missile
defense shield we have Iskander
missiles, to the “orange filth” [i.e.: Orange Revolution] - a closure of Afghan
transit routes, to their talk of human rights - we block the gas pipeline, etc. And
then, all of a sudden, it has become clear that we have a gaping hole in this
ideal system.
That hole is called the “Magnitsky list.” In
response to the death in prison of a lawyer who uncovered an embezzlement
scheme by bigwigs at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Internal Revenue Service,
the yanks are going to block respected people in law enforcement from entering
the United States (which is not exactly a death sentence), and even (this is the
worst part) freeze their accounts in American banks. That hits where it
hurts. And then those skunks from Congress intend to expand the list to include
anyone violating human rights. Hello, Mister Churov
[election chief]! And you, ComradeBastrykin [chief federal investigator]!Alexander Hinshtein, that incorruptible member of the Duma, says you have property outside the boundaries of our
beautiful homeland. What if the NATO countries, which according to Putin have
handed their sovereignty over to Washington, join in observing the Magnitsky
list? Where will a lowly Russian politician go? China? Dubai? Don’t crack me up!
Those devious yanks are pressing the most sensitive spot for
Russian grandees: money. Russian officials want to safeguard the millions they’ve
swindled out of Russia. And, funnily enough, the safest place for the money is
where all the silly things Putin hates - independent courts, rule of law,
financial confidentiality - are taken seriously. There, all of the things we
don’t give a damn about are considered holy.
And to add insult to injury, no matter how much they huff
and puff, Russian chiefs can’t give an adequate response. You can imagine how
much the American attorney general is terrified at having his Sberbank account frozen – just as the FBI director is
losing sleep over not being able to savor the view of the Kremlin from the
National Hotel. Of course, the accounts of the Americans who have invested in
Russian companies could be frozen. But that would only lead to a freezing of
all Russian assets abroad.
Posted
by Worldmeets.US
As a result, the story of the “Magnitsky list” is one about
the country’s competitiveness. President Putin can wear out his tongue singing the
praises of life in Russia. Only those in his inner circle know the price of such
rhetoric. And, I suspect, that they are very worried that one day their wives,
permanently residing in the treacherous United States, will lose their capacity
to shop on Fifth Avenue. Yes – and their precious offspring, studying in
Harvard and Stanford, will suddenly have their debit cards blocked.
The “Magnitsky Act” has
suddenly exposed the weakest point in Putin’s Russia. His minions, like the
classic compradors, want
to mine money in their miserable motherland, but keep it and spend it abroad.
Guys, were you real patriots, you would ridicule this list. Instead, you
twitched and flew into a tantrum. America has found the fearsome weapon to use against
Putin’s Russia. It has nothing to do with missile defense systems.
