The blacklist was published by Lithuania's Interior Ministry on January 15 and included Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia's Chechnya region, among other prominent Russians.
Human rights groups say that Kadyrov, who was appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007 to head Chechnya, rules through repressive measures and has created a climate of impunity for security forces.
They claim Kadyrov has been responsible for abuses that include kidnappings, disappearances, torture, and killings of political opponents.
Also targeted on the Lithuanian blacklist are Russian Investigative Committee chief Aleksandr Bastrykin, who is accused of carrying out numerous politically charged cases against Putin opponents, and Russian lawmaker Andrei Lugovoi, who is accused in the poisoning death of Kremlin critic Aleksandr Litvinenko at a hotel in London in 2006.
The Lithuanian law was modeled on the U.S. Magnitsky Act. The Magnitsky laws are named for Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who died in a Moscow jail in 2009 after suffering what his supporters said amounted to torture.
Comment: The death of Sergei Magnitsky, commonly referred to the Magnitsky Myth, is nothing but an excuse to impose sanctions on Russia. See:
- William Browder, tax fraud and the guardians of the Magnitsky myth
- Mainstream media and the Magnitsky myth: โU.S. reporting project sheds unfavourable light on UK citizen financier and campaigner Bill Browder
- Origins of the anti-Russia sanctions: The CIA-MI6 plot to corrupt Russia, recruit Navalny, murder Magnitsky, and blame Putin (VIDEO)
Magnitsky had been jailed by Russian authorities after he helped uncover a $230 million tax-fraud scheme. He was later convicted posthumously of the crime.
Lithuania was the fifth Western country to adopt Magnitsky legislation, following the United States, Canada, Britain, and Estonia.
The Lithuanian law authorizes the Foreign Ministry to identify people it considers to be violators of human rights or engaged in corruption and money laundering. The Interior Ministry can then act on those recommendations and ban the people from the country for five years.
Russia had no immediate response to publication of the blacklist. The Russian ambassador to Vilnius, Aleksandr Udaltsov, has previously warned that Moscow will retaliate over the new law.
"We will have to respond to yet another unfriendly step by Lithuania and bar entry to Russia to a number of unwelcome individuals from this country," Russian news agency Interfax has quoted him as saying.
Comment: Lithuania, along with Canada, Britain, and Estonia, are nothing more than US vassal states, parroting the US by imitating their Russian sanctions, relying on the Magnitsky Myth as justification. Will they ever see the light? See also: