‘Blacklists won’t harm US-Russia relations’
15 April 2013 6:33 AM IST
Members of both chambers of Russia's parliament have expressed optimism that the publication of ‘tit-for-tat’ lists of Russian officials banned from entering the US and vice versa would not prove a major setback in US-Russian relations.
Alexei Mitrofanov, head of the Duma's committee on information policy, information technology and communications, said there would not be a deterioration in US-Russian relations over the US Magnitsky List.
He said the US administration had come to a compromise by publishing a list of just 18 officials banned from visiting the US or holding assets there.
Leonid Slutsky, head of the Duma's committee on CIS countries and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party faction, said the absence of high-ranking officials on either country's list signified a relaxation of tension.
‘It goes without saying that in this situation (the release of the Magnitsky List), we will undertake symmetrical measures, but the fact that the US Magnitsky List, like our response, does not include any high-ranking officials, it is still a provocation, but the tension has decreased,’ said Slutsky.
Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Federation Council - the upper chamber of parliament - and a member of the United Russia party, said Russia had greeted the publication of the US Magnitsky List with an identical response, but that it did not want relations with Washington to become too tense.
‘We didn't let the unfriendly gesture by the US go unanswered, but nevertheless, we are not interested in the escalation of tension,’ he said.
Margelov said he hoped that Monday's visit to Moscow by Thomas Donilon, US presidential national security advisor, would make it possible ‘not only not to bury the reset, but to take it to a whole new level’.
His comments were apparently a response to a statement by Alexei Pushkov, head of the Duma's international affairs committee, who said that the Magnitsky Act effectively ‘buries the idea.
Alexei Mitrofanov, head of the Duma's committee on information policy, information technology and communications, said there would not be a deterioration in US-Russian relations over the US Magnitsky List.
He said the US administration had come to a compromise by publishing a list of just 18 officials banned from visiting the US or holding assets there.
Leonid Slutsky, head of the Duma's committee on CIS countries and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party faction, said the absence of high-ranking officials on either country's list signified a relaxation of tension.
‘It goes without saying that in this situation (the release of the Magnitsky List), we will undertake symmetrical measures, but the fact that the US Magnitsky List, like our response, does not include any high-ranking officials, it is still a provocation, but the tension has decreased,’ said Slutsky.
Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Federation Council - the upper chamber of parliament - and a member of the United Russia party, said Russia had greeted the publication of the US Magnitsky List with an identical response, but that it did not want relations with Washington to become too tense.
‘We didn't let the unfriendly gesture by the US go unanswered, but nevertheless, we are not interested in the escalation of tension,’ he said.
Margelov said he hoped that Monday's visit to Moscow by Thomas Donilon, US presidential national security advisor, would make it possible ‘not only not to bury the reset, but to take it to a whole new level’.
His comments were apparently a response to a statement by Alexei Pushkov, head of the Duma's international affairs committee, who said that the Magnitsky Act effectively ‘buries the idea.
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