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Updated Monday, October 24, 2011 9:47 pm TWN, By Anna Smolchenko ,AFP

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Russia introduces US visa blacklist in lawyer spat

MOSCOW -- Russia said Saturday it had put high-ranking U.S. officials implicated in “human rights crimes” on a visa blacklist, warning Washington against increasing diplomatic pressure over the prison death of a lawyer.

Washington had earlier outraged Moscow by banning visas for an unspecified number of Russian officials linked to the 2009 death in prison of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, his fate a symbol of abuses in the Russian judicial system.

Moscow's announcement of the visa black list — and a threat to expand it — was made during U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to ex-Soviet Central Asia. It comes as Russia's tough-talking Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is gearing up to reclaim the presidency in March elections.

Many fear his comeback will a deal a blow to the “reset” in relations championed by his protege, incumbent President Dmitry Medvedev, who has prided himself on building a rapport with U.S. President Barack Obama.

The Russian foreign ministry released a statement Saturday saying it had made good on its earlier promise to put together its own list in response to Washington's “political provocation” against Russia.

“Relying on the principle of reciprocity, a list of U.S. nationals whose stay in Russia is deemed undesirable has been put together,” foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

He accused Washington of “moralizing” and reeled off a number of alleged U.S. rights violations such as “uninvestigated murders of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan” and “indefinite detention of prisoners in Guantanamo.”

The list “contains high-ranking Washington officials implicated in the aforementioned high-profile human rights crimes,” Lukashevich said without providing any names.

The list also includes officials involved in “wrongful acts against Russian nationals in the United States,” he said, noting they too would be denied entry to Russia.

The statement gave no further details, saying only the measure targeted the U.S. officials who had authorized “abductions” of Russian nationals.

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