"Persons involved in Ivan Golunov’s case may be facing US sanctions" — Anton Imennov’s and Sergey Glandin’s column for Snob magazine

For fighters with journalists and whistleblowing bloggers the US have a special sanction regime called GLOMAG under the Magnitsky law of 2016 and the Executive Order No. 13818. This information was shared with Snob by experts of Pen & Paper Attorneys at Law.

Lawyer and Managing Partner of the firm Anton Imennov and the Special Counsel on Sanctions Law and Ph.D. in Law Sergey Glandin are convinced that the risk of ending up in American and European lists may be a valid argument for the settlement of the case in the journalist’s favor.

Art. 3 of Magnitsky Law provides for imposition of sanctions against any of the former or incumbent officials responsible for extra-judicial murders, tortures or other flagrant violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against persons attempting to expose illegal activity performed by government officials. An example of consequences of US sanctions was recently mentioned by Financial Times: for Viktor Vekselberg’s inclusion in the list cost him not only financial problems and suspension of business, but also a personal crisis: the businessman’s freedom of movement and travel is restricted, so he cannot visit New-York City to see his daughter and grandson.

As of the moment following defendants in the Golunov case are known: the policemen who detained him, namely Roman Filiponov and Dmirty Kozhanov, investigator Igor Lopatin, Head of Department for control of drug dealing of the Directorate of Internal Affairs for Western administrative district of Moscow Andrey Schirov and the judge of Nikulino District court Mikhail Maksimov. This list can also be extended by the chief doctor of City Hospital No. 71 Aleksandr Myasnikov, since under EO No. 13818 all persons involved in the case are subject to sanctions regime.

“Futlyar ot Violoncheli” Telegram channel named one of the possible paymasters of this case — Deputy Mayor of Moscow Petr Biryukov, and the amount paid. Ivan Golunov’s colleagues and friends claim that over the past year he’d been threatened multiple times by the persons mentioned in his text that hadn’t yet been released, the one the journalist submitted to the editor two hours before being detained. The material contained names of two high-ranking officials of the directorate of the FSS for Moscow and Moscow Region: the Head of the Directorate General Colonel Aleksey Dorofeyev and his assistant Lieutenant Colonel Marat Medoyev, and also pointed to their possible connection to the capital's funeral market.

Pen & Paper experts also stressed that if the situation and violations in the course of investigation of the case catch the attention of the European government, apart from measures and restrictions coming from the American government, the defendants in the case may also face EU sanctions. Last spring the European parliament started drafting a bill similar to Magnitsky Law to punish violators of human rights. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Great Britain have already introduced a number of restrictions similar to US sanctions, which means the defendants in the Golunov case may at least be denied entry to the Schengen area.