MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced the imposition of reciprocal Russian list of British citizens banned from entering the territory of the Russian Federation.
"In response to the unfriendly actions of the British authorities and on the basis of the reciprocity principle, the Russian side made a decision to impose personal sanctions on 25 representatives of the Great Britain who are now banned from entering the territory of the Russian Federation," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier that "under nonsensical and contrived pretenses, the British government announced a decision in July 2020 to impose national sanctions on a number of officials of our country as part of the so-called Magnitsky case."
"We have repeatedly given exhaustive comments on all issues relating to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, which London apparently prefers not to notice. It's unclear on what grounds they assume the powers to 'appoint' those guilty and decide on their 'punishment.' The actions by the British side cannot be called anything but an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of a different state and put pressure on the Russian justice system," Zakharova said.
The reciprocal Russian list has been introduced under the federal law on the procedures governing entry to Russia and departure from Russia of August 15, 1996, she said.
"We are again calling on the British administration to stop the unfounded confrontational line on our country. Any unfriendly steps will not be left without an unavoidable commensurate response," Zakharova said in the statement.