Russia not taking Senate criticism well

Guardian:
Russia has condemned a US Senate committee's approval of a bill that would ban officials accused of human rights abuses from entering theUnited States.
On Tuesday, the Senate's foreign relations committee unanimously passed a bill named after Sergei Magnitsky, a young lawyer who died in jail in 2009 after uncovering an alleged corruption scheme involving Russian tax officials and police. His arrest and subsequent death are widely seen as symbolising the absence of rule of law inside Russia.
Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, called the committee's decision "counterproductive". Russia's response would be "harsh" and "not necessarily symmetrical", he told state television on Wednesday.
The bill, put forward by Senator Benjamin Cardin, would ban officials allegedly involved in Magnitsky's death from entering the US, and impose restrictions on their financial activities inside the country.
Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, warned at the G8 summit in Mexico earlier this month that Russia would ban US officials from entering Russia if the Magnitsky bill was passed.
The US state department has already quietly banned 60 officials linked to the Magnitsky case – a move seen as an attempt to avoid the public row that would erupt from the adoption of the Senate bill.
Reacting to news of the Senate's move, Vyacheslav Nikonov, a Duma deputy, suggested compiling a "Guantánamo list" or "Viktor Bout list" to punish US officials involved in running the detention centre or in the jailing of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in the US.
"We need to create conditions so that the law will not be adopted," Nikonov told the RIA-Novosti news agency. "And if they adopt it, Russia will have no choice but to give a symmetrical answer."
... 
Russia seems to be falling back into a Stalinist lair.  The rule of law is a sometime thing for some people.  That reset thingy is not working out too well.

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