MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Liberal Democratic Party MP, Andrei Lugovoi, who was added to the US blacklist of Russians under the Magnitsky Act, has not ruled out that Washington’s next step may be introducing restrictions against him for using the banned meldonium substance.
Lugovoi said the decision of the US authorities to add him to the blacklist raises eyebrows. "Where am I and where is the Magnitsky list-this is not really clear. Moreover, the Magnitsky list includes individuals who they believe violate human rights. Over the past years I, as an MP of the State Duma, have been involved in lawmaking activity and dealt more with protecting human rights," Lugovoi told TASS.
"I have this feeling that I will soon be included in McLaren’s list for using meldonium at the 2014 Olympics," the lawmaker joked, referring to the report of Richard McLaren published by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Russia’s alleged doping violations.
"We should wait until then and probably, its entire logic will fall into place," the lawmaker said, stressing that "US psychiatrists rather than politicians" should be working on this reasoning.
Lugovoi is wanted by the UK on suspicion of his alleged role in the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer, in London. Moscow rejected the extradition request for Lugovoi. Russia stated that London’s actions regarding the Litvinenko case are politically-motivated.
On January 9, the US Department of the Treasury added five more Russian individuals to its blacklist under the Magnitsky Act, which sanctions Russian officials whom the US believes to be responsible for human rights violations.
The new blacklist also includes Dmitry Kovtun, who is also accused of allegedly killing Litvinenko, as well as Russian Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin, Stanislav Gordiyevsky and Gennady Plaksin. According to Russian mass media, Plaksin previously headed the Universal Savings Bank and Gordiyevsky is a former Investigative Committee official.