Corrupt Russians face UK sanctions
BRITAIN: Russian officials involved in corruption and human rights abusers are to be targeted with a tough sanctions regime coordinated with the US and Canada,
The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.
Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, and Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, have agreed that Britain will introduce a UK version of the so-called ‘‘Magnitsky Act’’ under which 49 Russian nationals are named in an official US list of ‘‘gross violators of human rights’’, whose crimes include extrajudicial killings and torture.
The move, which was being planned before last week’s poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former spy, and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, is likely to inflame tensions with Moscow, after the nerve agent attack that Government figures believe points to Russian involvement.
If evidence points towards Russian involvement in the attack, Prime Minister Theresa May could choose to announce the new laws as part of a raft of retaliatory measures against Moscow.
Vladimir Putin has railed against similar legislation introduced in other countries, even imposing a retaliatory ban on American adoptions of Russian children after Barack Obama introduced the US version of the legislation.
Senior Conservatives campaigning for the move said ministers had agreed to implement ‘‘Magnitsky amendments’’ into the Sanctions Bill currently in the House of Commons. But they warned that the government was resisting a ‘‘key’’ element of the proposals, which would ensure that the new laws ‘‘actually get used’’.
The disclosure comes after Rudd, following a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergencies committee, revealed that police investigating the attack in Salisbury have identified more than 240 witnesses and 200 pieces of evidence. Rudd said officers were working their way through ‘‘substantial amounts of CCTV’’.
The Sunday Telegraph has learned that a large amount of footage has already been ‘‘materially useful’’ to the investigation.
Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who fell seriously ill after tending to Skripal and his daughter, released a statement from hospital saying ‘‘he does not consider himself a hero’’ and was ‘‘merely doing his job’’.
Last month, The Telegraph disclosed that MPs led by Andrew Mitchell, the former Tory chief whip, were pressing Johnson to include a ‘‘Magnitsky amendment’’ in the Sanctions Bill, which introduces a post-Brexit national sanctions policy.
The move is backed by the Labour front bench and a growing number of Conservative MPs, including Richard Benyon, who told Johnson in the Commons last week that the amendments were an opportunity ‘‘for the whole House to come together to give a clear message.’’ The campaign came after David Cameron admitted in December that he regretted ‘‘that we didn’t introduce the Magnitsky Act’’, after similar moves by the US, Canada and several European countries.
Benyon said: ‘‘We’re pleased that they’ve said that they want to implement a full Magnitsky series of pieces of legislation, and this is clearly the vehicle in which to do it, but the review mechanism is key.’’ Mitchell added: ‘‘We have been making slow but reasonable progress with the Government in trying to reach a mutually acceptable position.’’
The legislation abroad was brought in after a campaign by Bill Browder, a British financier whose lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in prison while investigating a fraud against his investment firm.