WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Canada’s version of the Magnitsky Act approved by the Senate upper chamber was an irrational measure driven by a dubious character accused of fraud, the Russian Embassy in Ottawa said in a statement.
"In defiance of common sense S-226 is hastily signed into law," the embassy said in a tweet Wednesday. "Irrational act sponsored by fugitive fraudster & tax evader and Russia-haters."
Should Bill S-226 receive royal assent, it will enable Canada to "sanction, impose travel bans on and hold accountable those responsible for gross human rights violations and significant corruption."
Director of the North America Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry Georgiy Borisenko told Sputnik last week that Moscow will take tit-for-tat measures in the event Ottawa expands its blacklist of Russian officials following the adoption by Canada of a Magnitsky-style law.
Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer with Hermitage Capital Management, was arrested on suspicion of participation in a tax evasion scheme and died in a pre-trial detention center in Moscow in 2009. In late 2012, the United States adopted the Magnitsky Act, imposing travel bans and economic sanctions against Russian officials allegedly involved in the lawyer's death.
