For 6 years after his death in custody, Sergei Magnitsky personified the cruelty in Russia of President Vladimir Putin. And then a documentary appeared that caused a sensation and attempts to prevent its demonstrations, in which the victim is portrayed as an accomplice in a crime.
Mocking memory
Demonstration of the film âMagnitskyâs Law. Behind the Scenes âin Europe was canceled after warnings of libel suits from financier William Browder were voiced. He fell out of favor with the Russian government and hired an auditor-lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, to investigate the grand scheme of tax-fraud fraud after the authorities appropriated three of his funds.
Andrey Nekrasov âMagnitsky Law. Behind the Scenes âwas about to showcase at the Newseum private news industry museum. Lawyers for Mr Browder and Magnitskyâs mother Natalya Nikolaevna sent a written request there to cancel the event. After a press conference, Newseum management refused to do so.
âWe support freedom of speech and expression,â said museum director Scott Williams. âWe cannot help but show them the film.â According to him, the museum is not a sponsor of the film screening, but leases a movie theater. âWe often rent premises for events that many would not want to see,â he said in response.
Magnitsky Law
Mr. Browder accused Andrei Nekrasov of defaming him and mocking the memory of the deceased. According to the film âMagnitskyâs Law. Behind the scenes, the well-known version of the lawyerâs death is incorrect: the police didnât beat him before his death, he did not testify that government officials conspired to steal $ 230 million of fraudulent tax benefits. In fact, Nekrasov claims that the fraud was organized by Mr. Browder.
The legacy of Sergei, who was 37 at the time of his death, is complicated by the fact that he has become such a powerful symbol. In 2012, Congress passed the Magnitsky Act, the essence of which is to create a list of Russian officials involved in human rights violations. Defendants on the list are prohibited from entering the United States and using the country's banking system. The Kremlin imposed sanctions on several American citizens and imposed a ban on the adoption of Russian children by Americans.
Lawmakers now intend to adopt a similar Magnitsky Law, which would impose sanctions on people anywhere in the world for human rights violations that surfaced in the case of a murdered lawyer. To the great disappointment of the Russian government, the bill will again bear his name. Demonstration of the film "Magnitsky Law. Behind the Scenes âat Newseum is particularly controversial because it can attract lawmakers or their assistants. In the huge museum, which is located on Pennsylvania Avenue, near the Capitol, the text of the First Amendment is carved above its main entrance.
Doubtful Director
Nekrasov is an experienced documentary filmmaker, whose work was sometimes critical for the Russian government. He made films about Russiaâs crackdown on Chechnya and the poisoning of former intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, funded by Boris Berezovsky.
Speaking in Berlin, the director said that he had no intentions to refute the death of lawyer Browder. Director Nekrasov âMagnitsky Law. Behind the scenes, âhe sees it as a documentary drama depicting the last days of the lawyer's life, and says that he had consulted with Browder, whom he planned to use to read the voiceover. But as soon as he began to examine the original documents of the case, according to Nekrasov, he began to doubt the version of Browderâs events.
âIt's hard to say at what point I thought it was a lie, a made-up story,â he said. One of the key points was that âthere were no signs of reports of corruption or illegal activitiesâ by Magnitsky.
Public response
People familiar with the Magnitsky case expressed doubt that he was involved in the conspiracy. âWhen I was in the government,â said Michael McFaul, the former United States Ambassador to Russia, âwe carefully studied his tragic case and had a fundamentally different assessment.â
In April, the film âMagnitsky Law. Behind the Scenes âin the European Parliament at the last minute did not take place after Browderâs lawyers began to threaten a lawsuit. British law firm Carter-Ruck also sent a letter to the German-French television network Arte, which planned to broadcast the film.
Who pays?
In the United States, Nekrasov hired the small lobbying firm Potomac Square Group, which worked for Kuwait, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan, along with other governments. She is led by a former Wall Street Journal reporter, Christopher Cooper. He rented a movie theater at the Newseum Museum and declined to say who pays for his company's services. âI am organizing this event for the director,â he said.
Cooper said a Q & A session will be held after the screening of the film with Mr. Nekrasov, moderated by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. The organizers also considered inviting Mr. Browder to take part in this action.
Attempt to sow doubt
He did not respond to requests for comment. But he already opposed the film in the past, calling it "a calculated attempt to harm our campaign and sow doubt in people about Sergei Magnitskyâs legacy."
Browderâs lawyers presented serious documentary evidence, including photographs of the lawyerâs beating in his prison cell. They also refer to the decryption of Magnitskyâs testimony, in which the lawyer named the people involved in the tax fraud.
Testimonies of Medvedev advisers
The ill-treatment in custody of Magnitsky is hardly doubtful. The Government initially claimed that he died from a sudden cardiac arrest. But after persistent questions, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered prosecutors to conduct an investigation.
In 2011, Medvedev's group of human rights advisers published a report concluding that Sergei Magnitsky was beaten. His illnesses were not treated for the entire 11 months he was imprisoned. The report stated that investigators and prison officials shared responsibility for his death.
Raider seizure
William Browder was once one of the major foreign investors in the Russian stock market. He spoke on the side of Putin, and in 2005 told the reporter that the newly elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, needed to develop closer ties with the Russian Federation. But after he was expelled from the country, Browder began to wage a tough battle against corrupt Russian officials.
Last year, he published the book Red Notice: The True Story of High Finance, the Murder, and the Solitude's Struggle for Justice, which described details of the circumstances of the death of Sergei Magnitsky.
Crime talent
On June 13, 2016, Andrei Nekrasov showed an updated version of his film against Magnitsky to a private audience at the Newseum Museum in Washington, where he is trying to justify Sergei Roldugin, cellist and childhood friend Putin, whose participation in the scam was discovered in April 2016 due to the leak of âPanamanian documents ".
In its new version, âMagnitsky Law. Behind the scenes, "Nekrasov claims that a friend of President Putin could not be the recipient of income from tax fraud in the amount of US $ 230 million discovered by Sergei, claiming that the money came into Rolduginâs accounts even before the Magnitsky case.
Nekrasov claims in his film that âthe money transfer, which was supposed to link Putinâs fraud and friend, was carried out in July and October 2007, that is, before the fraud took place in late December, when the tax refund was approved by Russian officialsâ .
In fact, according to the Panama Papers, as well as the Organized Crime and Corruption Project, $ 2 million related to $ 230 million fraud came to Delco Networks SA on February 27, 2008, 2 months after a crime, and from there $ 800,000 were transferred to Sergey Roldugin's company International Media Overseas SA under an agreement dated May 2008. The company was registered on February 1, 2008 and opened an account with a branch of Gazprombank in Switzerland.
Repeat fans
âThese recent statements by Andrei Nekrasov clearly show his commitment and that the purpose of his film is to justify corrupt Russian officials and involved individuals who have benefited from $ 230 million fraud, a fact that Sergey revealed,â William Browder, leader of the global movement "Justice for Magnitsky."
The main allies of Andrei Nekrasov in promoting his film are Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian lawyer Denis Katsyv, whose company is currently charged with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Attorney General of Switzerland for money laundering in connection with the 230 million-dollar fraud uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky. Information about Veselnitskayaâs participation in the organization of filming and the interrupted demonstration in Brussels was published by the TASS pro-Kremlin news agency, which called it âone of the Russian organizers of the tape previewâ.
Other supporters of the film, Andrei Nekrasov, âMagnitskyâs Law. Behind the scenes âare Pavel Karpov, a former police officer who was responsible for the storage of documents used to steal budget funds, and Andrei Pavlov, aâ family adviser â, an organized criminal group Klyuev, who participated in a judicial conspiracy, which became a scam tool. They both flew to Brussels for the canceled European premiere.
Billion for a snack
The premiere of the film âMagnitsky Lawâ in Russian took place at the Moscow International Film Festival, whose president, Nikita Mikhalkov, who was undergoing treatment for pneumonia, even left the hospital for viewing. Such enthusiasm was probably fueled by the billion rubles he asked from the budget to open his new chain of eateries.
In his film, Nekrasov rejects the evidence, conclusions and conclusions of several independent investigative bodies and journalists, confirming that Magnitsky was arrested after testifying against corrupt Russian police officers and died in custody.
Human rights defenders
The list of premeditated lies of Andrei Nekrasov is set out in a 50-page presentation of the Justice for Magnitsky movement. It is based on official documents, testimonies of Sergey and the results of independent investigations.
Nekrasovâs lie in the film was also established by Russian human rights activists, who stated that his goal was to attack Magnitskyâs list in the interests of corrupt officials affected by sanctions. A corresponding statement was made by the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva and the head of the Moscow Public Oversight Commission, which conducted a forensic medical examination of the death of a lawyer in custody, Valery Borschev.
Magnitsky was a lawyer for the Hermitage Capital Management fund, who revealed a scam about the abduction of $ 230 million from the state budget and testified to the involvement of Russian officials in it. He was arrested on false charges, detained without trial for 358 days, tortured and killed while in custody at the age of 37. These events are described in the New York Times bestseller, The Red Label by William Browder, and in a series of videos on the Youtube channel The Russian Untouchables on Youtube.