Russia introduces US visa blacklist in lawyer row

Russia said yesterday it had put high-ranking US officials implicated in “human rights crimes” on a visa blacklist, warning Washington against piling pressure on Moscow following the prison death of a lawyer.

A line has not been drawn – if the US side continues on its path of visa confrontation we will be forced to expand that list- Moscow

Washington had earlier outraged Moscow by banning visas for an unspecified number of Russian officials linked to the 2009 death in prison of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, which became a symbol of abuses in the Russian judicial system.

Moscow’s announcement of the visa blacklist – and a threat to expand it – was made during US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to ex-Soviet Central Asia and comes as Russia’s tough-talking Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is gearing up to reclaim the presidency in March elections.

Many fear his comeback will a deal a blow to the ‘reset’ in relations championed by his youthful protégé, incumbent President Dmitry Medvedev, who prides himself on building rapport with US President Barack Obama.

The Russian foreign ministry released a statement yesterday saying it had made good on its earlier promise to put together its own list in response to “political provocation” against Russia.

“Relying on the principle of reciprocity, a list of US nationals whose stay in Russia is deemed undesirable has been put together,” foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

He accused Washington of “moralising” and reeled off a number of alleged US rights violations such as “uninvestigated murders of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan” and “indefinite detention of prisoners in Guantanamo”.

The list “contains high-ranking Washington officials implicated in the aforementioned high-profile human rights crimes,” Lukashevich said without providing any names.

The list also includes officials involved in “wrongful acts against Russian nationals in the United States,” he said, noting they too would be denied entry to Russia. The statement gave no further details, saying only the measure targeted the US officials who authorised “abductions” of Russian nationals.

The statement warned that if Washington continued to put pressure on Moscow, the list would be expanded to include more US officials.

“A line has not been drawn – if the US side continues on its path of visa confrontation we will be forced to expand that list,” Lukashevich said.

Moscow released the foreign ministry statement as the top US diplomat was visiting the impoverished ex-Soviet nation of Tajikistan.

Russia had earlier said it was “bewildered” the State Department had decided to prejudge the guilt of its officials before Moscow had completed its own investigation.

Yesterday’s statement comes after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov admitted that Russia’s judicial system could be improved but said Moscow did not need foreign advice.

“We see our problems and will be dealing with them ourselves,” he said in a live radio interview last Friday night.

Magnitsky, 37, died in a Moscow jail of untreated pancreatitis after being held in pre-trial detention in a complex fraud case for 11 months.

Analysts say US-Russia ties are likely to take a beating as Medvedev is gearing up to leave the Kremlin next year and Obama faces a tough re-election bid in 2012.

Earlier this month US Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney warned that the Obama administration’s ‘reset’ of relations with Russia “has to end”.

Earlier last week Putin went on national television, telling his foreign critics to “mind your own business” and fight inflation and “obesity”, in an obvious dig at the US, where around 25 per cent of people are obese, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Replying to a request to comment on Western attempts to brand him a “hawk”, Putin said that “the hawk is a good little bird.”