Russian Prosecutor General asked the US to open a criminal case against Putin’s critic Browder
The Russian Prosecutor General, Yury Chaika has requested the United States to launch a probe into British investor William Browder, on whose initiative the United States adopted the so-called "Magnitsky Act" on sanctions against Russian human rights violators.
According to Radio Liberty, Chaika is said to have requested this in his letter to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In another letter, he called on the US to verify the validity of the adoption of the "Magnitsky Act" itself. According to Chaika, this law was adopted "solely at the suggestion of criminal individuals."
Browder is a British businessman and the co-founder of the Hermitage Capital Fund.
In a reaction to Chaika’s request, former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul called the situation "outrageous" and urged US President Donald Trump and the State Department "not to join Putin's campaign against Browder."
Earlier, Browder stated that Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika was involved in the death of a lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a pretrial detention center.
Browder was one of the initiators of the "Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability" in the United States, which provides for visa and economic sanctions against the Russians that, according to Washington, were involved in the violation of human rights. Last week, Canada joined the Magnitsky Act.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Ottawa’s actions unconstructive. According to him, this topic is used in the West for "stirring up of anti-Russian hysteria."