The US has quietly imposed a visa ban on Russian officials believed to have played a part in the murder of lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, posing questions about EU handling of the affair.
A state department memo confirms that most or all of the 60 officials implicated in the Magnitsky conspiracy have been red-flagged in the Consular Lookout and Support System (Class), a namecheck database used to give or decline visas.
The non-public memo, dated 22 July, says: “[US secretary of state Hilary] Clinton has applied existing laws and authorities to implement the visa limitations on multiple individuals associated with the wrongful death of Sergey Magnitsky.” It adds: “Individuals included on the list … are already flagged in the visa adjudication (known as Class) system used by visa officers.”
The list includes judges, interior ministry officials and secret service personnel said to have embezzled hundreds of millions of euros of Russian tax money and then murdered Magnitsky when he exposed the scam.
Two top names are Olga Stepanova, the 48-year-old head of the Moscow tax authority, and Viktor Voronin, the 53-year-old chief of the Russian secret service’s (FSB’s) economic espionage unit.
The US normally imposes sanctions with some fanfare, as with Libya and Syria. But the Magnitsky move was kept quiet in order not to create a diplomatic row.
The memo was sent to senators working on a bill which could give Congress new powers to request travel bans and asset freezes on foreign human rights abusers. The memo noted that the so-called ‘Magnitsky bill’ could provoke a retaliation.
Andrew Rettman