US risks wrath of Moscow with threat to officials on 'Magnitsky list'
Source: UK Guardian
Washington risked further inflaming relations with Moscow on Friday by targeting 18 Russian officials for alleged human rights abuses and threatening them with financial sanctions and visa bans.
The names, released by the Treasury, follow the passage of a controversial bill through Congress requiring the US to take retribution against Russians alleged to have been involved in covering up corruption and organised crime.
Known as the Magnitsky Act, after the Russian lawyer and whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested in 2008 for tax evasion after accusing Russian officials of stealing $230m in tax rebates. In prison, Magnitsky was repeatedly beaten and denied medical treatment. He died in 2009 of untreated pancreatitis.
Russia responded angrily to the act, imposing a ban on US adoptions of Russian children as a tit-for-tat measure that marked a new low in recent relations.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/12/us-moscow-sanctions-threat-russians
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