US accused of meddling in Russia's affairs
US: Russia says the United States publication of a list of
Russian officials targeted for sanctions under the so-called "Magnitsky
Act" amounts to interference in its internal affairs.
On Friday, Washington imposed sanctions on 18 Russian officials
suspected of having ties with the death of Russian lawyer Sergei
Magnitsky in 2009.
According to the Interfax news agency, President Vladimir Putin's
spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian television station on Sunday that
Russia regards Washington's action as "direct interference in its
domestic affairs."
He added that the move is "a blow to Russia-US bilateral relations."
The comments came a day after that Russia's Foreign Ministry in
retaliation for Washington's move released its own blacklist of American
officials "implicated in human rights violations."
The ministry said in a statement that "The war of lists is not our
choice, but we cannot ignore outright blackmail."
The statement added that the Russian blacklist "primarily includes
those who are implicated in legalization of torture and perpetual
detentions in Guantanamo prison, to the arrests and kidnapping of
Russian citizens."
David Spears Addington, the chief of staff for former Vice President
Dick Cheney; the US district judge Jed Rakoff, FBI agent Gregory Coleman
as well as Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller and Ad. Jeffrey Harbeson -- two
former commanders of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp -- are among those
named in the list. Moscow has already denied entry to a former US senior
commander at the notorious Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba where the
United States keeps terror suspects. The Magnitsky Act was passed in the
US on December 6.
- PRESS TV |