In June 2016,
The New York Times reported that the film was "generating a furor."
Bill Browder published a list of seven key claims presented in the movie along with evidence proving they are false, for example that Magnitsky was not beaten in the custody and that he did not report the tax fraud against Hermitage to the police. paid for and attended the Newseum screening, to which Congressman
Dana Rohrabacher, a senior member of the
House Committee on Foreign Affairs, was invited to "try to recruit him to the Russian cause." When management refused to cancel the event,
The Nation commented that "the Newseum deserves great credit for sticking to its principles," adding that "the film provides a valuable service by asking how it is that American (and European) officials bought Browder's story without doing even the slightest due diligence. The American and European legislators who took Browder's version of events on faith now look credulous, at best."
The Washington Post, however, commented in an editorial: "The film is a piece of
agitprop that mixes fact and fiction to blame Magnitsky for the fraud and absolve Russians of blame for his death." According to
The Post, "Mr. Nekrasov declares, 'Magnitsky wasn't a whistleblower. Magnitsky did not accuse any police officers. Magnitsky did not even investigate anything.' He adds, 'The young man died in a Russian prison. I do not believe it was murder. It was a case of negligence and the Russian system is to blame in many ways, but it wasn't murder; he wasn't murdered by the Russian state as Mr. Browder claims.' This is just what President
Vladimir Putin and his honchos want the West to hear."
The Post predicted, "The film won't grab a wide audience but it offers yet another example of the Kremlin's increasingly sophisticated efforts to spread its illiberal values and mind-set abroad. In the European Parliament and on French and German television networks, showings were put off recently after questions were raised about the accuracy of the film, including by Magnitsky's family. We don't worry that Mr. Nekrasov's film was screened here, in an open society. But it is important that such slick spin be fully exposed for its twisted story and sly deceptions." ==Awards==