Russia has threatened to impose a US-type adoption ban on EU presidency country Ireland if its MPs pass a tough resolution on the late anti-corruption activist Sergei Magnitsky.
Its ambassador in Dublin, Maxim Peshkov, made the threat in a letter to deputies on the Irish parliament’s foreign affairs and trade committee dated 11 March and seen by EUobserver.
Referring to the committee’s draft resolution of 4 March, which urged the Irish EU presidency to push for an EU-level visa ban on Magnitsky’s alleged tormentors, Peshkov said: “This approach … can have negative influence on the negotiation of the Adoption Agreement between Russia and Ireland being proceeded.”
Magnitsky, a Russian accountant, died in pre-trial detention in prison in 2009 after exposing a scam by Russian officials to embezzle $230 million from the Russian treasury.
His former employer, UK-based investment fund Hermitage Capital, has amassed evidence that prison guards starved him of pancreatic medication and subjected him to a brutal beating in the final hours of his life.
Its case was strong enough for the US to impose sanctions on 18 Russian officials earlier this month.
Moscow reacted by banning US families from adopting Russian children.
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