MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. US senators’ plans to slap Magnitsky Act sanctions on the Russian prosecutor general and the justice minister are at least unfounded, since even the US court has recognized the arguments as unverified and unsubstantiated, the head of the Legal Department at the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, Artur Zavalunov, told a session of the Interim Commission of the Federation Council (the parliament's upper house) for the protection of state sovereignty and prevention of interference in Russia’s internal affairs.
He reminded the audience of statements from two US senators who had demanded punishment for Russia over persecution of the opposition in the form of new sanctions — this time against Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika and Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov.
He stressed that William Browder had lobbied for Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act. "We have nailed him to the wall, at least taken him out of the comfort zone. Presently, he is a defendant in five criminal cases in Russia opened on charges of murder, masterminding and leading a criminal community and laundering more than 5 billion roubles ($76.6 million) embezzled from the budget," Zavalunov noted.
Besides, in reviewing a suit from the US government against one of the Russian nationals, the American court ignored plaintiffs’ references to the Magnitsky Law, as the one passed without verifying its assertions and based only on unfounded statements from Browder. "We have always been saying that the Magnitsky Law is not relying on facts," he noted. While given the US court decision, "the information that is reviewed now, the senators’ demands to put our officials on the sanction list within the framework of the Magnitsky Act, are at least unfounded," a representative from the Russian Prosecutor’s Office said.
He expressed confidence that Browder "will be held to account for his schemes in other countries as well," while the Russian public prosecution will do its best so that the charges against Browder in which he is accused of more serious offences see a fair trial.
Browder’s cases
On November 19, 2018 Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office reported that the investigators had opened a criminal case against Browder in connection with the creation of a criminal group.
Browder was convicted in absentia in Russia twice. On July 11, 2013, Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court found him guilty of large-scale tax evasion to the tune of 522 mln rubles (about $8 million) and sentenced him to nine years in jail. That verdict also barred him from doing business for two years.
In July 2014, Russia put Browder on an international wanted list. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has repeatedly asked Interpol to issue an arrest warrant for him.
On December 29, 2017, Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court sentenced Browder to nine years behind bars in absentia, having found him guilty of tax evasion again, this time to the tune of more than 3 bln rubles ($45.3 mln) and bankruptcy fraud. His business partner Ivan Cherkasov was handed a similar prison sentence. The court also upheld a lawsuit against Browder and Cherkasov for 4.2 bln rubles ($63.4 mln) and barred them from doing business in Russia for three years.