WASHINGTON, November 14 (Sputnik) – US President Barack Obama should properly enforce the Magnitsky Act and needs to expand the blacklist of alleged Russian human rights abusers, US Senator Jim Risch, co-sponsor of the Magnitsky Act, has told Sputnik.
"The [Obama] Administration has not made enough progress on the Magnitsky Act. It's the law of the land, and the Administration should enforce it properly and do much more to review cases and people who should be added to the list," Risch said.
The administration was criticized by senior US Senators in January for not adding more names to the original list and failing to encourage other countries to impose similar targeted measures.
"They have narrowly applied this law when they should be taking a much broader position on it," Risch added.
The 2012 Magnitsky Act calls for sanctioning Russian officials allegedly complicit in the 2009 death of whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison.
The bill is being assessed just ahead of the five-year anniversary of lawyer's death on November 16.
In response to the Magnitsky Act, Russia issued its own blacklist of US officials linked to human rights violations at the infamous prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
