The blacklist of Russian officials to be punished under the U.S. Magnitsky Act will be published this month, a U.S. Embassy official was quoted as saying.
Howard Solomon, deputy minister counselor for political affairs at the embassy, told a roundtable in the Golden Ring city of Kostroma that the so-called Magnitsky List of Russians implicated in human rights violations will be published in March, RIA-Novosti reported Thursday.
The Magnitsky Act requires U.S. President Barack Obama to publish a list of those responsible for the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and other alleged human rights abusers within 120 days from the date the bill was signed into law.
Obama signed the bill into law on Dec. 14, meaning the White House is required to publish the list by April 13. The law contains a clause allowing the president to keep secret any names he deems necessary for national security reasons.
Individuals on the list will be barred entry to the United States and will have any U.S. assets they own frozen.
The passage of the Magnitsky Act has triggered a series of tit-for-tat actions by Washington and Moscow, including a Russian ban on adoptions of Russian orphans by U.S. parents.
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