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U.S. Sanctions Chechen Leader Kadyrov, Four Others Under Magnitsky Act

RFE/RL December 20, 2017

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Treasury has hit the leader of Russia's Chechnya region with financial sanctions under the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law that aims to punish Russians alleged to be involved in human rights violations.

Ramzan Kadyrov, whose name was added to the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on December 20, is one of the most prominent Russian officials to be added to the list established by the 2012 law, a move that infuriated the Kremlin.

Four other individuals were also added to the sanctions list: Ayub Katayev, Yulia Mayorova, Andrei Pavlov, and Aleksei Sheshenya.

Kadyrov, and another man appearing to be from Chechnya, were targeted for "gross violations of internationally recognized human rights" in Chechnya. The Treasury Department said one allegedly was involved in abusing gay men in Chechnya in 2017.

The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta earlier this year was the first to document that police in Chechnya rounded up, tortured, and humiliated dozens of gay or bisexual men.

The report was later corroborated in part by RFE/RL as well as by Human Rights Watch, which said the "antigay purge" lasted from late February until at least early April and that "it was ordered and conducted by officials in Chechnya."

Kadyrov himself denied the accusations, as did the Kremlin.

The other three were accused of involvement in the criminal conspiracy exposed by Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian whistle-blower for whom the law is named.

The United States passed the Magnitsky Act in 2012, punishing people alleged to be connected to Magnitsky's death and the massive tax-fraud scheme he helped uncover.

Magnitsky was employed by British-American financier William Browder when he was arrested and charged with the $230 million tax-fraud scheme that he helped uncover.

He died in a Moscow jail in 2009. His friends and family say he was tortured while detained.

A Council of Europe investigation concluded the conditions leading up to his death amounted to torture.

In the wake of the 2012 U.S. law, Moscow banned American parents from adopting Russian children. Congress later passed an expanded version of the Magnitsky law, amid a secretive lobbying campaign in Washington aimed at undermining the facts of the Magnitsky case.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-sanctions-kadyrov-four- others-magnitsky-act/28929548.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.