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Moscow blacklists 60 American nationals under ‘anti- Magnitsky’ bill

Pushkov said that the first list of U.S. citizens forbidden to enter Russia appeared in October 2012

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, January 18 (Itar-Tass) – Russia has blacklisted 60 U.S. citizens who are banned from entering the country in accordance with the adopted ‘anti-Magnitsky’ bill, Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian State Duma Committee for International Affairs, said on Friday.

"A list of 60 non-entry U.S. nationals was formed in Russia on the basis of the ‘anti-Magnitsky’ bill. It includes judges, agents, representatives of security services, prosecutors linked to trials over Russians Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko as well as congressmen who were the authors of the “Magnitsky Act” and Americans who have violated the rights of children adopted from Russia,” Pushkov went on to say.

He added that the names of judges who passed unduly mild sentences on such parents as well as experts who claimed that the Russian children had died of inborn ailments and illnesses rather than as a result of battery have also been blacklisted.

Pushkov said that the first list of U.S. citizens forbidden to enter Russia appeared in October 2012. It includes 11 people, linked to the creation and operation of the Guantanamo prison, secret CIS prisons and the torture of prisoners.

Under Russian laws, the Russian Foreign Ministry compiles “black lists” for foreigners. Russia’s Human Rights and Children’s Rights Ombudsmen have the right to recommend concrete candidates for inclusion in these black lists to the Foreign Ministry.

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