Russia retaliates with blacklist on US officials

The Russian Foreign Ministry reports that it has approved the list of US officials who are banned from entering Russia. The list is classified, but media suggests that it includes people connected with the Bout and Yaroshenko cases.

The document is a mirror response to the recent US initiative to introduce visa restrictions on a number of Russian officials. Initially the US Congress considered the possibility of banning several dozen Russian officials from entering the country, announcing it as a punishment for those who had any relationship with the so-called Magnitsky case – the death of a Russian lawyer from the international investment fund Hermitage Capital in a Russian prison, pending trial over a large-scale tax evasion. However, later the State Department prepared and introduced a shorter blacklist which, it claimed, would tone down the tensions between the two countries.   More Read