MOSCOW, July 9 (RIA Novosti) – An influential Russian parliament member on Tuesday denied media reports that the British government had banned dozens of Russian officials from entering the United Kingdom.
On Monday, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that the UK Home Office had “issued the bans after the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) published a list of the 60 officials in June last year.” The Home Office declined to comment on the matter when asked by RIA Novosti on Monday.
Alexei Pushkov, who heads the international affairs committee in Russia's parliament, said the committee “had no information about any new blacklists whatsoever approved by the UK government.”
“Restrictions for British visa applicants are in place for citizens of every state, they are not directed specifically against Russia,” he said. “The British side considers that human rights violations are a sufficient ground to reject a visa application and no special legislation is thus required.”
The Daily Telegraph report highlighted an April 18 written answer to a question from UK lawmaker Dominic Raab, a long-time campaigner for Britain to adopt its own “Magnitsky list,” asking whether anyone accused by the US CSCE in 2012 of being involved in Magnitsky’s death had visited the UK.
UK Immigration Minister Mark Harper replied that, although the UK does not, as a rule, disclose records relating to arrivals, the “Home Office Special Cases Directorate is already aware of the individuals on the list and has taken the necessary measures to prevent them being issued visas for travel to the UK.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier on Tuesday that Moscow had not received any official notification from Britain about the alleged blacklist. British authorities “have repeatedly stressed they are not going to introduce any such lists,” he said.
Lavrov suggested that media reports claiming that the UK was implementing “Magnitsky list” visa bans could be “provocation” designed to “divert public attention” from other “hot topics” in European and international politics.
After the US adopted the Magnitsky Act in December 2012, Russia responded with its own sanctions on US officials and by banning US citizens from adopting Russian children. The European Union is reportedly currently considering adopting its own version of the “Magnitsky list.”
