Press Release
Hermitage Capital

13 July 2012 – One day following a major lobbying campaign in Washington DC against the Magnitsky Act by four Russian Federation Council members who presented a “parliamentary investigation” posthumously defaming Sergei Magnitsky as their main evidence against the legislation, Mikhail Margelov, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, disavowed the findings of their report saying they were not part of the parliamentary investigation.

“This was not a parliamentary investigation in the common sense of the word…Members of the Russian delegation summarized materials on Magnitsky case and submitted them to U.S. colleagues in the form of a short report. The main idea of this summary was to urge the U.S. side to move from political to legal aspects of the case of the lawyer,” said Mikhail Margelov.

On Wednesday, Russian Federation Council member Vitaly Malkin publicly communicated highly defamatory statements about late Sergei Magnitsky. He claimed that Magnitsky was a “drunk”, “out of shape” and that he didn’t die from his injuries after a severe beating. He referred to his findings as the result of an official “parliamentary investigation.”

Speaking to RBK news agency, Mr Margelov explained that the Russian lawmakers involved were acting in their personal capacity, and the parliamentary investigation was not approved by the Federation Council (the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament).

“In addition to the shameful attempt to posthumously defame Sergei Magnitsky, these Russian lawmakers even misrepresented the nature of their acts in U.S. Congress. They feel that there are no consequences to publicly misrepresenting the truth or even their own mandate to present this misinformation. It shows a complete disrespect for their counterparts outside of Russia,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

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