On Monday, the UK announced to freeze the bank accounts of Russians who were involved in the assault and death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.
Russia will respond “according to the principle of reciprocity” to the sanctions imposed on 25 Russians by the United Kingdom. A Kremlin spokesperson said on Tuesday, according to Reuters news agency. Moscow announces “some kind of retaliation” which will go “to the extent that this is in the interest of the Russian Federation”. It is as yet unclear what this entails.
On Monday, the UK announced sanctions against 25 Russians, including those allegedly involved in the assault and death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in Moscow’s infamous Butyrka prison in 2009. Their bank accounts are frozen and visa restrictions are imposed on them.
The sanctions are purely decorative. Nobody of the list is actually holding British visa or has bank account in British bank.
Magnitsky was arrested in November 2008. He had accused Russian officials of large-scale tax fraud and was subsequently prosecuted for tax evasion. Almost a year later, he was found dead in his cell, where he had been on remand for all this time. ‘Magnitsky act’ was introduced by US. In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for his death. Prison guards had mistreated him and he had not received necessary medical care.