MOSCOW, December 14 (Itar-Tass) — As many as 381 deputies of the State Duma and 138 senators of the Federation Council have drafted a Russian legislative act in retaliation to the Magnitsky act, chairman of the State Duma Committee for Constitutional Legislation and State Construction Vladimir Pligin said on Friday, presenting a bill on the measures of influence on people, who are involved in the violations of human rights of Russian citizens. State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin and the leaders of four State Duma factions initiated the bill.
“The process of involving the lawmakers in the drafting of the bill continues,” he stated. A total of 450 deputies work in the State Duma and 166 senators in the Federation Council.
Pligin noted that Russian citizens were exposed to discrimination in the United States many times, the most blatant cases are regretfully linked with the tortures of Russian children. The lawmaker recalled that Russia was seeking to settle all these issues many times in political ways, but “in most cases the situation was not developing in the positive vein.” “It is high time to shift the problems from the political dimension to the legal dimension and to draft the systemic legislation for the protection of the human rights of Russian citizens abroad,” the head of the State Duma committee stated.
Pligin recalled that the bill envisages a ban on the entry in Russia for the US citizens, who “committed the crimes against Russian citizens, who are staying abroad or involved in the committing of the crimes, who are vested with the state powers, who assisted by their actions or negligence in the relief from responsibility of people, who committed the crimes against Russian citizens, who involved in the kidnapping and illegal deprivation of freedom of Russian citizens, who handed down ungrounded and unfair verdicts on Russian citizens and who launched the groundless legal persecution against Russian citizens.”
At the same time the bill envisages the arrest of the financial assets in Russia and the embargo on any deals with the real estate for US citizens, who are banned the entry in Russia. These US citizens will be banned to use the property in Russia, and the activities of the legal entities controlled by these US citizens and the powers in the boards of directors and other governing bodies, which are registered in Russia, will be suspended.
The list of the US citizens, who are forbidden to enter Russia, will be kept and changed by the federal executive agency, which is vested with the powers in the foreign affairs (the Russian Foreign Ministry). The members of the Russian Federal Assembly, the political parties and the Russian human rights commissioner can offer probable blacklists.
The foreign minister is expected to report about the progress in the fulfilment of the law to both houses of the Federal Assembly no rarer than once a year.
The law will enter into force after its approval on January 1, 2013.