The President of Russia Vladimir Putin talked about the controversy surrounding the death of the Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky with the leaders of the E.U., Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on December 22, 2012.

In his comments on the progress made at the Russia-E.U. summit in Brussels, Lavrov said that the participants of the summit were compelled to address the issue of human rights. In that respect, the case of Magnitsky was also brought up during the summit. While the Russian Foreign Minister acknowledged that the death of a person in conditions of confinement is tragic, the Russian President explained to the European leaders that the death of Magnitsky was and still continues to be the subject of an investigation. That investigation is related to William Browder, for whom Magnitsky worked as a lawyer.

William Browder and Hermitage Capital Management are being investigated for illegal activities on the Russian financial market and tax evasion. As such, Minister Lavrov said that the existence of a criminal investigation is an important part of Magnitsky’s tragedy. The Minister did recognize the need for providing better conditions in Russian detention facilities, noting that the investigation into the death of Magnitsky still continued.

The Russian Foreign Minister nevertheless believes that the Magnitsky story was exploited for an inappropriate purpose. Minister Lavrov said, “People die not only in the Russian Federation, they die in Europe and in the United States of America. People also die in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia – for example, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. No one passes the ‘Milosevic Act’ because it would be cynical and blasphemous.” As such, the Russian Foreign Minister is deeply convinced that the issue of human rights should not be transformed into a foreign policy device with an ulterior purpose. The Minister added that “any human tragedy should give a lesson to us. By drawing conclusions we should do everything possible to make our systems more humane.”

Minister Lavrov believes this conclusion to have universal application to all countries alike – Russia and the European Union, which, as the Minister pointed out, delayed its investigation into secret CIA prisons and the investigation based on the report by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari on the trade in human organs. The final conclusion that the Russian Foreign Minister believes cases such as these inescapably lead to is that it is necessary to take care of human rights. Still, while human rights violations must be investigated, it must not be done for the sake of public relations because media coverage and open hostility will not solve these problems.