Moscow: A Russian Member of Parliament Aleksey Pushkov in a statement said that Russia did not deny visa to Representatives member Chris Smith who complained that he was denied entry in Russia for his political activities.
“Russia never concealed the fact that we have made a blacklist of US citizens after the US Congress passed the Magnitsky Act. We have warned them, but we were not the initiators of this process,” Aleksey Pushkov was quoted as saying by the Russian News Service radio.
The comment came after Republican Chris Smith, the chairman of the House subcommittee on Human Rights said in a Wednesday interview that he had been denied Russian visa for the first time and linked this with his sponsorship of Magnitsky Act – the recent US laws that imposes sanctions on Russian officials allegedly complicit in human rights violations.
Chris Smith said that this was the first time he was denied Russian visa adding that he managed to travel to the Soviet Union “during its worst days”. Other countries who have denied entry to Chris Smith are China, Cuba and Belarus he added.
According to Smith, Russian ambassador to US told him that the decision on visa denial had been made in Moscow and personal interference of the US ambassador to Russia has not improved the situation. Russian Embassy in Washington has said that it was not giving official comments on its visa policy.
