Lobbying didn't work

A delegation of Russian senators: Vitaly Malkin, Valery Shnyakin, Alexander Savenkov - presented a report in the American Congress on the case of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The authors of the document claim that they have collected documents from the Prosecutor General's Office, the Tax Service, the Investigative Committee, and the Federal Penitentiary Service, many of which have not previously been published.

The main cause of Magnitsky’s death was medical error, and the indirect cause was alcoholism, the authors of the report say. “The doctor who dealt with him did not have the right to deal with him, she was an epidemiologist, hired through connections,” said Vitaly Malkin (quoted from RIA Novosti). “It was just sloppiness. Magnitsky was 37 years old. When a person at such a young age says that his stomach hurts, this is not taken seriously. He drank, he was not an athletic person. The doctor did not see that he had pancreatitis. The examination says that there were abrasions, but he died not from them, but from pancreatitis."

Russian senators do not question the legality of Magnitsky's arrest. According to Malkin, Magnitsky worked for the general director of the Hermitage Capital fund, William Browder, who “stole colossal amounts of money from the Russian budget.”

The Hermitage Capital fund itself considers the report of the Russian senators to be “deliberately false.” “In an effort to prevent the adoption of the Magnitsky Law at all costs, Senator Vitaly Malkin accused Sergei Magnitsky of alcoholism and called this an indirect cause of his death,” says the official press release of the foundation. “It should be noted that Sergei Magnitsky never abused alcohol, and no Not a single objective evidence confirming the senator’s words, including not a single medical examination or examination indicated the presence of alcohol in his blood. Moreover, alcohol could not have caused the death of Magnitsky, who died on the 358th day of his stay in prison. A pre-trial detention center where any possibility of drinking alcoholic beverages was excluded."

In addition, representatives of the fund consider the doctor’s accusation in the lawyer’s death to be unfounded and mention more than 20 refusals to provide medical assistance to Magnitsky. Hermitage Capital continues to adhere to the version that the cause of the lawyer’s death was his beating by prison staff.

A delegation of Russian senators also met in Congress with the initiators of the Magnitsky Act - Republicans John McCain and Roger Wicker. He is scheduled to meet with Democrat Jim McGovern on Thursday. However, one of the main developers of the law, Democrat Ben Cardin, refused to meet with Russian senators. “I think Russia should mind its own business. It should monitor the observance of human rights and hold accountable for their violation,” the congressman explained his decision (quoted by Reuters).

According to Jim McGovern, while official Russian authorities are opposed to the adoption of the bill, the opposition and even some businessmen approve of the adoption of the Magnitsky Act. “I talked with business representatives who think this is a good idea. That is, not only human rights activists, but also many other people would like the government to investigate and punish those responsible for human rights violations and those involved in corruption,” he said.

2 years have passed since the death of the lawyer. The circumstances and those involved in his death are known, but none of them were punished. PublicPost dossier: history of the issue, developments. >>>