The newest version of the Magnitsky bill, unanimously approved by a leading Senate committee on Tuesday, would impose sanctions on any official of any country convicted of violating human rights, Kommersant wrote Thursday.
The previous version of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which would institute a visa ban on officials linked to the 2009 pretrial detention death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, had stipulated that the law would not apply to officials outside of Russia.
The new version, though, does not require that the officials targeted with sanctions be notified.
Russian officials have repeatedly spoken out against the adoption of such a law, considered to contradict the principle of "innocent before proven guilty."
President Vladimir Putin has threatened a tit-for-tat response, whereby U.S. officials would incur Russian sanctions.
