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RF might make its own ‘Magnitsky List’ against US violators of human rights – security chief

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who also took part in the meeting, said he hoped the State Duma’s response would be non-partisan and concerted
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, December 9 (Itar-Tass) — Russia has the right to make its own “Magnitsky List” in respect of Americans who violate human rights, secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said on Sunday at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s election agents.

“We will take a relevant decision,” he said. “We have the right to pass such documents in respect of the U.S. side.”

In the mean time, Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the State Duma’s foreign policy committee said that the lower parliament house will discuss a possible response to the “Magnitsky Act” next week and added that the Russian lawmakers are inclines in favor of a tougher edition to expand amendments to the law on entry procedures with a special focus on the United States.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who also took part in the meeting, said he hoped the State Duma’s response would be non-partisan and concerted. He said he was in favour of such an edition that concerns only those Americans whose involvement in the encroachments on human rights had been proved.

According to Lavrov, the U.S. law meets the interests of political struggle inside the United States. “But since it is an attempt to meddle with our internal affairs, I would like the State Duma’s response to be non-partisan and concerted,” he said.

U.S. Senate on Thursday adopted a bill on normalization of trade relations with Russia, which incorporates the so-called Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act envisioning sanctions against the judges, lawyers, and law enforcement officers reportedly involved in the controversial situation around the lawyer of Hermitage Capital Management lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow pretrial investigations center in November 2009.