Russia moved closer on Friday to
adopting a law barring entry to Americans who violate human rights, the same day
U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law a rights-linked trade bill Moscow
finds objectionable.
The tit-for-tat response came in
a near-unanimous vote in the State Duma - the first of three votes before the
bill goes to the upper house - hours before Obama signed the U.S. legislation
into law.
The U.S. legislation is known as
the Magnitsky Act after Sergei Magnitsky, an anti-corruption lawyer who died in
a Moscow jail in 2009.
It will require the United States
to refuse visas for Russians accused of human rights violations and freeze any
assets they hold in the United States.
Only two deputies in the 450-seat
Duma voted against Russia's retaliatory bill, which would deny visas to
Americans who violate the rights of Russians abroad, as well as seizing their
assets and preventing them from doing business in
Russia.
All four parties backed the bill
- a rare display in a chamber where the Communists and Just Russia frequently
vote against Kremlin-controlled United Russia.
"We will answer in kind," said
Vladimir Vasiliyev, the senior lawmaker for United Russia, which holds a
majority in the Duma. "The saddest thing is that ... the hawks (in the United
States), Cold War hawks, have again won out."
"The Magnitsky Act is just an
excuse to meddle in our internal affairs," said Just Russia deputy Alexander
Tarnavsky.
The spat may make it harder for
the two nations to halt a downward drift in relations, which had improved after
Obama launched a "reset" of ties in 2009. Reuters
President Barack Obama on Friday
signed the so-called Magnitsky Act, which blacklists Russian officials allegedly
implicated in the prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
AFP Russia has said the bill signed
by U.S. President Barack Obama to punish Russian human rights abusers was
"shortsighted and dangerous" and called it "overt interference into our internal
affairs". Washington Post Russia's President Vladimir Putin
has harshly criticized the U.S. legislation, saying the U.S. Magnitsky Act would
further strain Russia’s relationship with the U.S. already weakened by the
conflict in Syria. The Russian bill that would
blacklist some Americans with entry bans and asset freezes in retaliation for
the Magnitsky bill targets Americans accused of abusing Russian-born adopted
children and U.S. judges or authorities deemed to have been too lenient in such
cases. The Huffington Post Russia says the United States
uses human rights as a pretext for meddling in the affairs of sovereign states
around the world. The Huffington Post
AHT/ARA
- Latest News
- Top Hits