French TV Sta­tion ARTE Per­ma­nently Can­cels Nekrasov’s Anti-Magnitsky Pro­pa­ganda Film

 

9 May 2016 – The French TV sta­tion, ARTE, has per­ma­nently can­celled the anti-Magnitsky pro­pa­ganda film by Russ­ian film­maker Andrei Nekrasov.

 

French lawyer Safya Ako­rri who rep­re­sents the widow of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and William Brow­der, the leader of the inter­na­tional jus­tice cam­paign for Sergei Mag­nit­sky, wrote to ARTE, sub­mit­ting a list of false alle­ga­tions made in Nekrasov’s film and pre­sent­ing the evi­dence of their falsity.

 

ARTE has since can­celled the show sched­uled for release on 3 May 2016 and offi­cially informed their lawyers that they had no inten­tion to show it at any point in the future.

 

ARTE’s deci­sion fol­lows the deci­sion at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment on 27 April 2016 not to air the Nekrasov’s film for sim­i­lar rea­sons. The screen­ing of Nekrasov’s film was sched­uled as a per­sonal ini­tia­tive of Nekrasov’s girl­friend, Heidi Hau­tala, a mem­ber of the Euro­pean par­lia­ment from the Green Party in Finland.

 

Speak­ing about the deci­sion by ARTE to can­cel the film, William Brow­der, leader of Mag­nit­sky jus­tice cam­paign, said:

 

“There are many peo­ple who wish to avoid fac­ing jus­tice for Magnitsky’s death and the crimes he exposed by try­ing to destroy his mem­ory and legacy. It is our duty to make sure this doesn’t hap­pen.”

 

Andrei Nekrasov’s film on Sergei Mag­nit­sky was pre­pared for release on ARTE’s Euro­pean cul­tural chan­nel on May 3, 2016 ignor­ing the fact that Sergei Magnitsky’s mother did not con­sent to the use of video footage of her.

 

“We are out­raged that Mr. Nekrasov pre­tended that he sym­pa­thized with our grief,” said Nataliya Magnitskaya.

 

Nekrasov’s film, which claims to be a “doc­u­men­tary”, con­tains numer­ous false alle­ga­tions against Sergei Mag­nit­sky, which had been reviewed and refuted by inde­pen­dent Russ­ian and inter­na­tional bod­ies, includ­ing the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe, com­pris­ing del­e­gates from 47 states, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, theUS Depart­ment, and the US Con­gress, among others.

 

The let­ter from Magnitsky’s mother and widow denounced any form of dis­tri­b­u­tion of Nekrasov’s film which, they believe, used com­pro­mised meth­ods char­ac­ter­is­tic of Krem­lin pro­pa­ganda films:

 

“Mr. Nekrasov is not unique, such mis­lead­ing movies and pro­grams are demon­strated in Rus­sia on a reg­u­lar basis to drag Sergei Magnitsky’s name through the mud and to jus­tify the per­sons respon­si­ble for his death. Direc­tors use frag­ments of inter­views which are often taken by deceit, sin­gle sen­tences or even words are taken out of the con­text of the doc­u­ments, cer­tain phrases are turned inside out and acquire the oppo­site mean­ing, frag­ments of speeches are com­bined in a way nec­es­sary to manip­u­la­tive indi­vid­u­als, accord­ing to the order.”

 

When the Mag­nit­sky fam­ily learned about Nekrasov’s film, they issued a let­ter of protest against this lat­est anti-Magnitsky pro­pa­ganda ini­tia­tive. The Mag­nit­sky fam­ily said:

 

“We think that the film by Andrei Nekrasov, which is based on his con­coc­tions but not on the doc­u­ments  and facts, degrades the dig­nity of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, degrades the deceased per­son who is unable to defend himself.”

 

“This movie is made in the inter­ests of those who are scared of the truth uncov­ered by Sergei Magnitsky,”

said Magnitsky’s mother and widow.

 

Fol­low­ing the rev­e­la­tion of Nekrasov’s turn-around on Mag­nit­sky case, ques­tions have been raised as to what could explain it.

 

Andrei Nekrasov was pre­vi­ously known for films, includ­ing about poi­son­ing of Alexan­der Litvi­nenko, which were pro­duced by his wife, Olga Kon­skaya, who passed away in Ger­many in 2009. Andrei Nekrasov’s pub­lic stance on Putin’s Rus­sia changed since at least March 2014 — the time of Pres­i­dent Putin’s inva­sion in Ukraine.

 

In Andrei Nekrasov’s blog post of 21 March 2014 avail­able on the web­site of ‘Echo of Moscow,’ Russ­ian radio sta­tion, he expressed a strong anti-American sen­ti­ment, jus­ti­fy­ing Putin’s actions, saying:

 

“Why Amer­ica (and allies) can vio­late inter­na­tional law, and Rus­sia — not? Amer­i­cans and Co vio­late it, and this is not Kremlin-Kiselev’s pro­pa­ganda, it is a fact rec­og­nized by the inter­na­tional community;”

 

“Putin con­trols the imag­i­na­tion of the peo­ple, and this is not the result of him “usurp­ing power…;”

 

“In the opin­ion of aggrieved Rus­sians, Crimea is not sub­ject to Budapest memorandum.”

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org