Epress.am News from Armenia
US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke at length on recent attacks on Russian journalists, reports RFE/RL.
Obama’s Chief Russia Policy Advisor Michael McFaul said that the conversation between the two presidents took place last Saturday in Japan on the sidelines of the Nov. 12–13 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit in Yokohama.
McFaul spoke before members of Congress and showed documentary footage of Sergei Magnitsky, who died a year ago in Moscow.
Magnitsky, 37, who represented Hermitage Capital, once Russia’s biggest foreign investment fund, was arrested on tax charges in 2008 after he accused senior Interior Ministry officials of embezzling the 5.4 billion rubles (worth $230 million at the time) in federal funds. He died of heart failure after repeatedly being denied medical treatment.
No arrests have been made in Magnitsky’s death, even though President Dmitry Medvedev has promised a thorough investigation, and the Interior Ministry has presented service awards to several investigators implicated by Magnitsky’s supporters in his arrest and death.