MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti) – By adopting laws such as the recently passed Magnitsky Act, the United States is unilaterally assuming the duties of an international court, the head of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee said on Monday.
“In fact, it means that US state authorities will determine in an extrajudicial procedure whether a person is guilty or innocent of committing crimes,” chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Russia’s Federation Council Mikhail Margelov said.
“Such a move clearly violates the sovereignty of the Russian Federation and demands an adequate response,” he said during the committee’s discussions on Russia’s Anti-Magnitsky bill.
The bill, passed in three readings by the State Duma, is scheduled for review next Wednesday by the upper chamber, the Federation Council, and if approved would then go to President Vladimir Putin to either be signed into law or vetoed.
Margelov described the most controversial part of the bill, the ban on US adoptions, as “our emotional response to the criminal and negligent treatment of Russian children.”