M.I.D.
RESPONDS TO
AMERICAN SANCTIONS AGAINST SECURITY OFFICIALS OF SURGUT FOR
TORTURE OF
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
Russia
will enlarge
the restricted lists on entry of citizens of the U.S.A. in
response to
Washingrton's imposition yesterday of sanctions against
personnel of the S.K.R.
[Investigative Committee] for Surgut, Kommersant reports.
Vladimir Ermolaev and
Stepan Tkach fell onto the American black list on suspicion of
their
participation in torture of members of the organization of
Jehovah's Witnesses
(forbidden in the RF).
In the
opinion of
the deputy head of the Russian MID [Ministry of Foreign
Affairs], Sergei
Riabkov, the new sanctions are a continuation of America's
"failed line
that has completely discredited itself." The deputy minister
declared that
Russia never will "bend" under the "pressure of sanctions."
"And of course we will expand in a corresponding fashion our
restriction
lists on entry of American citizens into our country," TASS
quotes the
diplomat.
As
Znak.com reported
previously, in February of this year followers of the
organization of Jehovah's
Witnesses reported torture and abuse that they said they were
subjected to in
the building of the Surgut department of the SKR.
The
believers
described how they were suffocated with bags, doused with water,
zapped with
electric shockers in the crotch, threatened with sexual
violence, and also
humiliated on the basis of ethnic and religious identity.
According
to the
version of the investigation department of the SKR, the
Jehovists who were
suspected of extremism put up "active resistance" during their
arrest, which was the reason for the use on them of "martial
approaches," because of which they received injuries in the form
of
abrasions and bruises. The traces of electric burns were called
"imitations" by the investigators. The U.S.A. imposed sanctions
against two officers of the SKR of Surgut because of the torture
of the
Jehovah's Witnesses.
In
mid-June,
attention to the account of torture in Surgut was given by the
Russian
ombudsman, Tatiana Moskalkov. While she was in Yugra, she met
with believers
and promised that their case would be personally dealt with by
the head of the
SKR, Alexander Bastrykin.
In
mid-August, a
delegation of the Council on Human Rights, led by the director
Mikhail Fedotov,
visited cities of the KhMAO [Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District],
including
Surgut, where residents en masse addressed the public activists
with complaints
about torture on the part of security forces. Citing the results
of these
meetings, a member of the council, Andrei Babushkin, declared
that "Surgut
is the Russian capital of torture," and Fedotov promised to
include in the
presidential report the account of the torture of the Surgut
devotees of the
Jehovah's Witnesses.
Yesterday
the U.S.
Department of State imposed personal sanctions against Ermolaev
and Tkach.
"The department has credible information that Ermolaev and Tkach
were
participants in the torture and/or cruel, inhumane, or degrading
treatment or
punishment of Jehovah's Witnesses in Surgut in Russia," the
statement of
the U.S. Department of State says.
The
United States
calls the Kremlin to cease "the unjust campaign against
Jehovah's
Witnesses and to immediately release more than 200 persons" who
at the
present time are detained because of their religious views. The
U.S.A. also
declared the necessity of bringing employees of the SKR of
Surgut to
accountability. (tr. by PDS, posted 16 September 2019)
"WE
CONSIDER
THIS ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE"
Following
M.I.D.,
Peskov promises sanctions against State Department, which closed
off entry into
U.S.A. by Surgut security officers
The
imposition by
Washington of sanctions against two officers of the regional
department of the
SKR in Surgut is a continuation of a destructive policy and
Moscow will make an
appropriate response to it. This was declared today by the press
secretary of
the president of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov.
"As
regards
such decisions with respect to representatives of the Russian
security forces,
of course we consider this absolutely unacceptable; it is a
continuation of the
destructive line in bilateral relations," TASS quotes the
representative
of the Kremlin. He added that the Russian MID has already
announced Moscow's
upcoming appropriate response to Washington's decision.
At the
same time,
Peskov considered to be incorrect the question of whether the
authorities would
support the officials who were inscribed onto the American
sanctions lists. . .
. (tr. by PDS, posted 16 September 2019)
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