MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. Moscow leaves open the stop-list of Latvian citizens espousing Russophobic ideologies, whom the Russian government has banned entry of the Russian Federation for, the Foreign Ministry said in a commentary on Wednesday.

"In response to the unfriendly actions of the Latvian government that has banned entry of Latvia for 49 Russian citizens from the so-called Magnitsky List, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the head of the Latvian diplomatic mission in Moscow," the document said.

The ministry said the Latvian representative received a list of Latvians "occupying overtly Russophobic positions and advocating a toughening of anti-Russian sanctions and the upkeep of the practice of discrimination against the Russian-speaking minority."

Entry of the Russian territory is closed unconditionally for these Latvians, the ministry said.

"We warned that we would keep the stop-list open and new personalities might turn up there if anti-Russian steps [on the part of the Latvian authorities - TASS] continued," the commentary said.

The Latvian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday the Russian authorities had handed the stop-list to a representative of the Latvian embassy in Moscow.

"On Monday, June 18, the Russian Foreign Ministry handed the Latvian embassy [in Russia] a list of Latvians whose entry of the Russian territory is banned," a press release said. "The ministry will notify each individual personally but it will not make the list public."

"The Foreign Ministry is not surprised by receiving this list and it believes the step does not pursue the goal of improving bilateral relations," the ministry said.

LETA news agency said the list contains the names of about 30 Latvians, including several politicians and deputies of the Saeima national parliament.

One of them, Justice Minister Dzintars Rasnacs, who is a member of the nationalistic association named National Alliance of All for Latvia and for Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK twittered about his blacklisting by Russia earlier. The alliance is one of the forces making up the incumbent ruling coalition.

According to LETA, the list includes Janis Dombrava, Gajdis Berzins and Rihards Kols who are also members of the alliance. The blacklisted deputies representing other political forces are Hosam Abu Meri, Ojars Eriks Kalnins, Inese Libina-Egnere, Andrei Yudin, and Artus Kaimins.

In addition to the politicians and deputies, Russia has also blacklisted the publicist Pauls Raudseps. Many of the individuals tweeted personally the news about Moscow’s decision to ban entry for them.

Latvian government’s decision to ban entry of the country’s territory for a number of Russian citizens came after the Saeima had adopted a bill modeled on the notorious US Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act.

Lithuania adopted a bill along the same lines in November 2017 and Estonia, in March 2018.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier Moscow would not leave these steps unanswered.

The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which is an ancillary act of the law on repealing the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment, carries the name of Sergei Magnitsky, an auditor at the Hermitage Capital Management fund who was arrested on charges of devising tax evasion schemes for the fund.

While investigation of his case was in progress, he died at Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention center. Executives of the fund claim his death resulted from denial of medical aid to him.

The law envisions sanctions against a number of Russian officials, including law enforcers whom, according to Washington’s theory, were involved in Magnitsky’s death. It also proliferates the sanctions to the people responsible for ostensible out-of-court killings, tortures and other serious encroachments on human rights.

The blacklisted individuals cannot enter the US and their accounts at US banks are subject to freezing.

Russian officials have described the Magnitsky Act on many occasions as an instance of interference in Russia’s domestic affairs.