Leonid
Slutskiy
Leonid Eduardovich
, Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs, underlined that
Russian citizen Maria Butina, arrested in the United States, “needs help to pay
lawyers to appeal against a completely unfair sentence.”
“As the head of the largest non-governmental human rights organization — the Russian Peace Foundation — I promise not to leave our compatriot alone. We will definitely find an opportunity to raise funds for Maria Butina,” he said.
The parliamentarian reminded that the Russian citizen stays in a US prison on false accusation. “This is an outrageous case of a politically motivated process. Maria Butina continues to remain, in fact, a political prisoner in the United States,” said Leonid Slutskiy.
“And one more thing: last week, the US Department of the Treasury expanded the so-called Magnitsky list by imposing sanctions on the Chechen Special Rapid Response Team “Terek”, its commander, and four more Russians. The Russophobic and unlawful step, which, however, made me recall the 2012 Russian legislative response to the Magnitsky Act,” the Chairman of the Committee emphasized.
He noted that ”this law gives officials, including members of both chambers of the Federal Assembly, the right to propose the Russian Foreign Ministry to include US citizens guilty of violating the fundamental rights of Russians, and, I will quote, ‘who is involved in the abduction and unlawful deprivation of freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation, who issued unreasonable and unfair sentences and who carry out unreasonable legal prosecution of citizens of the Russian Federation” in the ‘black lists”.
“In the light of what is happening, I am ready to offer to include in our reciprocal “Terek’s list” those who were guilty and involved in the bullying and judicial reprisals against Butina,” concluded Leonid Slutskiy.
