US Balks at Magnitsky List Expansion – Report
WASHINGTON, December20 (RIA Novosti) – The United States has declined to expand a controversial blacklist of alleged Russian rights abusers in time for the release of its inaugural annual report on the sanctions, a US website reported Thursday evening.
The US State Department had been preparing to add up to 20 new names to the so-called “Magnitsky List” but opted at the last second not to expand the blacklist with the release of the report looming, The Daily Beast cited officials, Congressional sources and experts as saying.
“We had multiple high-level assurances that there had been new names,” a Congressional aide told the website. “Now we hear today that there’s not going to be a new list. There’s no explanation.”
The blacklist is authorized under the Magnitsky Act, a US law designed to punish officials believed to be connected to the 2009 death of whistleblowing Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow jail. The legislation was later broadened to include a range of alleged Russian rights abusers.
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131220/185756000/US-Balks-at-Magnitsky-List-Expansion--Report.html
