The US Treasury's
Office of Foreign Assets Control earlier added Chechnya's Terek Special Rapid
Response Team and five Russian nationals to the sanctions list.
WASHINGTON, May 17.
/TASS/. Russia will take reciprocal measures in response to new US sanctions
introduced on the basis of the Magnitsky Act, the Russian Embassy in Washington
D.C. said in a statement released on Thursday.
"Washington's
new anti-Russian steps are associated with the so-called Magnitsky Act,"
the embassy said. "They represent an attempt to force unilateral measures
of coercion which go against international law and cannot be considered as a
civilized way of communication between countries," the embassy added
noting that "reciprocal measures will follow."
"When we
responded reciprocally before, we always stressed that this is not our choice.
We strive for cooperation with the United States in the long term. We are ready
for this and think that this is a right choice," the embassy said.
"US sanctions
against the Terek Special Rapid Response Team from Chechnya reflect either the
intention to complicate international cooperation in the fight against
terrorism, or the fear of the team's potential to operate in the Arctic.
Moreover, such unconstructive decisions clearly go against the positive
atmosphere of the recent Russian-US talks in Sochi," the embassy
concluded.
The US Treasury's
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) earlier added Chechnya's Terek Special
Rapid Response Team and five Russian nationals, including Terek's commander
Abuzayed Vismuradov, to the sanctions list on the basis of the Magnitsky Act.
The Sergei Magnitsky
Rule of Law Accountability Act was passed by the US Congress and signed by
then-President Barack Obama in December 2012. The law particularly specified
sanctions against a number of Russian officials, including law enforcement
officers, believed by Washington to have played a role in the death of Sergei
Magnitsky, an auditor at the Hermitage Capital Management company, who died in
a Moscow detention center in November 2009.
The act envisages
sanctioning Russian officials whom the US considers to be responsible for human
rights violations. It particularly allows the US government to freeze assets
and ban visas for officials.
Source: ITAR-TASS
17-05-2019
