RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – May 4, 2011
TODAY: European court orders rules that Sutyagin was detained for too long; former spy Poteyev charged with high treason; investigator calls for new Hermitage arrest; media head disputes Freedom House findings; Latynina on Domodedovo; Moscow wants guarantees on U.S. missile defense; President gets new terror powers; Magnitsky play debuts in Washington.
The Russian government will have to pay €20,000 in damages to Igor Sutyagin, after the European Court of Human rights ruled that he was detained for too long (he was arrested in 1999 and released last year) and denied a fair trial. Alexander Poteyev, the former intelligence officer accused of aiding the U.S. arrest of ten Russian sleeper agents last year, has been charged in Moscow with high treason and will be tried in his absence. Oleg Silchenko, thought to be connected to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, is calling for the arrest of Ivan Cherkasov, another Hermitage Capital employee based in London, in connection with the same tax evasion case. The Chairman of the Public Chamber’s committee for media issues, who is also the editor of the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, argues that this week’s Freedom House report on Russian media freedom did not take ‘positive trends‘ into account.