Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for a London-based fund that was once the biggest in Russia, wrote to his mother of wasting away from an agonizing illness without proper medical care in a crowded Moscow prison cell that reeked of sewage.
Just 11 days after the last letter reached her, Magnitsky died while awaiting trial on tax-evasion charges. He was 37.
Magnitsky's story hit a nerve in Russia, where memories linger of the millions who died of cold, starvation and neglect in the harsh Soviet gulag. Two of Russia's biggest independent business dailies ran a front-page story when he died, and President Dmitry Medvedev has called for an investigation. One prison official has accepted some responsibility for the squalid conditions.
In an exclusive interview, Magnitsky's mother showed The Associated Press a series of letters from her son detailing his ordeal in Butyrskaya prison, notorious for its harsh conditions.
Nataliya Magnitskaya said she was only allowed to visit him once at Butyrskaya during his 11-month imprisonment and found him emaciated and exhausted. On Nov. 17, as she brought him a parcel of food, officials told her he had died 12 hours earlier...
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U.S.-Russia Relations? What's It?
Tamara, a student at De Anza College, said that she would not travel to Russia because, in her words, "every foreigner who arrives there must immediately register with police and then he or she would be followed by them eeverywhere, as my friend, a Russian, told me."
But Tamara (while her name sound Russian she is not a Russian) was just among a handful of students interviewed at De Anza College on November 19 who gave a clear opinion about current relations between the U.S. and Russia. Most of the surveyed did not offer any opinion on this issue.
U.S.-Russia relations are back to the foreign policy agenda of our country. President Obama is trying to restore relations with Russia after they have been worsened because of Russia-Georgia war in 2008.
However, despite President Obama's efforts, 53 per cent of Americans regard these relations in rather negative light, according to Gallup poll conducted in July, before President Obama's first visit to Moscow.
Gallup Poll
Sixteen out of 31 De Anza students surveyed did not expressed opinion on Russia at all. Another five said that there is "no Cold War," and nothing beyond this fact. Still another five mentioned that relations are better then in the past but should be better.
"Relations are not bad but not very good either," said Pavel, a Russian. However, he did not elaborate.
Nina, a student from Lebanon, said that if the relations between the U.S. and Russia don't get better, "the U.S. will get in even more trouble" because "the U.S. and Russia are both huge countries, they should support each other," she said.
Amita, a faculty member, would see more communication between the U.S. and Russia. "It used to be Cold War, but now is cold relations," she said. "More mutual exchanges, partnerships, collaboration have to be," she added.