U.S. slaps five Russians with sanctions over human rights

The WASHINGTON — United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on five Russians, including the leader of Chechnya, under a U.S. human rights law that has been a major irritant between Washington and Moscow.

The five Russians were targeted under the Magnitsky Act, passed by Congress in 2012 in response to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. He died in prison after exposing a tax fraud scheme involving Russian officials, and the law named after him allows the U.S. to target violators of human rights. All told, the U.S. has targeted 49 Russians under that law.

The latest additions include Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia. The Treasury Department said Kadyrov oversaw “disappearances and extrajudicial killings” and that he’s believed to have ordered the killing of one of his political rivals. The rival had accused Kadyrov of personally carrying out torture.

The Treasury Department also said it was targeting a Chechen law enforcement official, Ayub Kataev, for alleged involvement in abuses this year against gay men. The United Nations and human rights groups have decried reports that men suspected of homosexuality have been rounded up in Chechnya and in some instances killed.

“We will continue to use the Magnitsky Act to aggressively target gross violators of human rights in Russia, including individuals responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture and other despicable acts,” said John Smith, a top sanctions official at the Treasury Department.

The other three Russians being targeted are accused of being involved in the criminal conspiracy in Russia that Magnitsky exposed.

Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer hired by Hermitage Capital, a hedge fund owned by British citizen William Browder. After accusing Russian officials of carrying out a $230 million tax fraud, he was charged with tax evasion and put in prison, where he died in 2009 at 37. An official Russian probe blamed a heart attack, but Russia’s presidential council on human rights concluded he’d been beaten and denied medical treatment.