The blacklist of American officials compiled by the State Duma as part of the recently passed "Dima Yakovlev" law has reached 60 individuals, a news report said Friday.
In December, there were only 11 individuals on the list, said Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported. All of those individuals were officials from the Bush administration believed to be involved in human rights violations that occurred at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
"As for the new officials and ordinary U.S. citizens added to the list, they can be divided into three categories: judges, investigators, members of the Justice Department and agents of the intelligence services involved in the criminal prosecution and conviction of Russian citizens Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko for a long term," Pushkov said.
The Duma's blacklist comes in response to the Magnitsky Act, a law passed by the U.S. that blacklisted Russian officials implicated in human rights violations. The officials included on the list are prohibited from entering the U.S. or owning any assets there. The Duma's blacklist of U.S. officials reciprocates those sanctions.
The other two categories added to the Dima Yakovlev blacklist, Pushkov said, consist of U.S. congressmen who initiated the Magnitsky Act, legislation passed by the U.S. to punish Russian officials implicated in human rights violations and U.S. parents guilty of abusing their adoptive Russian children.
In addition, the list now includes judges who failed to punish allegedly abusive parents and doctors and psychiatrists who attributed any deaths of adopted Russian children to congenital defects or developmental problems rather than maltreatment at the hands of their adoptive parents.
The Dima Yakovlev Law came into effect Jan. 1, 2013, and effectively broke the agreement between the U.S. and Russia on cooperation in international adoptions. The law is named after a two-year-old Russian boy who died after being left unattended in a vehicle by his adoptive U.S. father. The law also serves as a response to the Magnitsky Act.
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