Russia bans U.S. officials' entry to respond to Washington's "Magnitsky List"

Moscow has completed a blacklist of "undesirable" American individuals who will be denied entry into Russia, Spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich said on Saturday. According to Lukashevich, Moscow's move is a response to the United States' so-called "Magnitsky List" linked with Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky's death. "We, of course, have not left the political provocation against our country unanswered. On the principle of reciprocity, we have confirmed a list of U.S. citizens whose entry into the Russian Federation is undesirable," Lukashevich said in a statement. He added that the list contains "highly-ranking Washington officials tied to crimes in the humanitarian range." However, the spokesman didn't specify the names of the Americans on the list, and stressed that if the U.S. side follows "a path of visa confrontation," Moscow would have to expand the list. Magnitsky, a lawyer charged with conspiracy in a tax evasion investigation, died in November 2009 after staying almost one year in Moscow's pretrial detention center. In July 2011, the U.S. State Department banned visas for about 60 Russian officials, who were, in Washington's opinion, involved in Magnitsky's case.