Putin Dodges Question on Magnitsky

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told reporters Friday that he did not know the details of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death in pretrial detention, just days after President Dmitry Medvedev ordered an investigation and prison officials admitted some responsibility.

Magnitsky was held for almost a year over tax-evasion charges stemming from his work for Hermitage Capital Management. Putin has repeatedly told reporters that he has never heard of Hermitage chief Bill Browder, whose company was once Russia’s largest investment fund.

Browder, a U.S.-born British citizen, is prohibited from entering Russia under a law that bans people deemed as threatening “the security of the state, public order or public health.” He actively campaigned for better corporate governance at major Russian companies and accused Interior Ministry officials of a scheme to steal $230 million scheme in budget funds.

During a news conference with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon in Rambouillet, a French journalist asked whether Putin was concerned that a lawyer died in jail, that human rights activists are killed and whether he and Fillon discussed human rights.

Instead of giving a direct answer, Putin started off by saying although human rights issues are important, prime ministers “are forced to address specific issues that have to do with industry and the economy.”

Refraining from referring to Magnitsky by name, Putin said, “Concerning specific people that you have mentioned. If the lawyer was in jail, then he was there not as a lawyer, but because there were claims against him. That a man has died in prison, that is a tragedy, very sorry. But I cannot comment on it here, because I don’t know the details, and I don’t know what sort of claims there were against the man.”

The comments sharply contrasted to the Kremlin’s reaction to the case.

Ella Pamfilova, head of the president’s human rights council, condemned Magnitsky’s death as “a murder and a tragedy” on Nov. 23. The following day, a criminal negligence investigation was opened on Medvedev’s orders, and on Thursday a senior prisons official said there were clearly violations in how Magnitsky was treated.

But Putin’s answer was similar to his handling of other questions related to Hermitage. Answering a question about Browder in 2008, Putin said he had “never heard of that name before,” and then invited “that person” to go to Russian court if he has complaints.

Two years earlier, at a G8 summit in St. Petersburg, then-President Putin responded angrily when asked about why Browder was banned.

“To be honest, I don’t know why this particular person has been refused entry to Russia. I can imagine that this person has broken the laws of our country, and if others do the same, we’ll refuse them entry, too,” he said.

In reference to a question about Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former Yukos chief, Putin retorted Friday with a recount of the Bernard Madoff case. He also indirectly compared Khodorkovsky to notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone, who was accused of many crimes but ultimately charged and jailed for tax evasion.

“Everything that happens [in Russia] happens in the framework of the law,” he said.