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Prime Minister Dodges Question on Magnitsky at French Press Conference

By Maria Antonova

The St. Petersburg Times

MOSCOW — 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.” 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.

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.”

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