MOSCOW, April 13 (UPI) -- Russia says it has drawn up a list of U.S. officials banned from entering the country in response to a U.S. list of Russian officials facing sanctions.
The U.S. list contains the names of 18 Russians banned under the Magnitsky Act from visiting the United States and freezes any assets they may have in America, RIA Novosti reported Saturday.
The Russian list also has 18 names. A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they were "implicated in torture and the indefinite detention of prisoners in the Guantanamo prison camp, as well as those involved in the abduction and removal to other countries of Russian citizens and in threats to their lives and health."
Four of the Americans on the list are connected with the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The rest are mostly described as prosecutors and special agents.
Sixteen of the people on the U.S. list are investigators and officials in the Russian interior ministry, the Prosecutor General's Office, tax and prison officials and judges. They are accused by the U.S. government and Russian rights groups of involvement in the death of Russian whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.
Magnitsky's supporters say the tax lawyer uncovered $230 million in tax fraud allegedly orchestrated by people on the U.S. list.
