To read GSF Advisory Board member Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP’s comments in The Independent on the US Senate’s vote to name Russian officials involved in corruption and to ban them from travelling to the US following the Magnitsky affair, click the link or paste it into your browser: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-starts-a-new-cold-war-over-magnitsky-affair-america-votes-to-name-and-shame-russian-officials-involved-in-corruption-prompting-furious-twitter-response-from-moscow-8390565.html

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, speaking to the Indepedent on 6th December said that Russian officials who were known to be corrupt should be banned.

“The argument is that these individuals are criminals or are linked to criminal organisations and they have quite expensive lifestyles which they can’t fully enjoy in Russia,” he said. “Half the satisfaction they achieve is by being able to travel to a number of western countries. It’s affecting them where it hurts.”

 “It’s not an action against the Russian government, because in theory they ought to be equally adamant to get hold of the people responsible for defrauding the Russian taxpayer and Russian government of billions of roubles.”