MOSCOW, December 14 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will react to any American expansion of the Magnitsky List, a senior Russian official said Friday.
Russia will reciprocate with a measured and proportional response, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
He added that the Magnitsky episode has been a longstanding thorn in the side of US-Russian relations that only the United States can remove.
The statements, published on the Foreign Ministry’s Twitter feed, were made in anticipation of a possible expansion of an American blacklist of 18 Russian officials accused of involvement in human rights abuses linked to the death of whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
There is a second, secret section of Russian officials on the Magnitsky List that is maintained by the US State Department.
Officials are due to make their first annual report on the list to the US Congress this month, prompting expectations that more names could be added.
Magnitsky died in pretrial detention in 2009 after accusing a group of police officers and tax officials of carrying out a $230 million tax fraud using the company where he worked.
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