US blacklists 4 Russians, 1 Ukrainian under Magnitsky sanctions

The United States blacklisted four Russians and a Ukrainian Monday under the Magnitsky Act, named after a Russian whistleblower who died in a Moscow prison in 2009.

The US Treasury Department added the five, identified by name but not by position, to its official sanctions list, which bans them from any business transactions with Americans or US businesses, freezes any assets under US jurisdiction, and also bans them from traveling to the United States.

Those named included Russians Oleg Urzhumtsev, Yevgeni Antonov, Boris Kibis and Pavel Lapshov, and Ukraine-born Aleksey Anichin.

The action was taken under the 2012 Magnitsky Act, which allows the government to blacklist anyone tied to the case of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who became a symbol for the fight against corruption in Russia.

The act can also be applied broadly to anyone involved in gross human rights violations against anti-corruption fighters and human rights defenders in Russia.

Magnitsky, who uncovered a tax fraud conspiracy involving hundreds of millions of dollars, was arrested himself and died at 37 after being held for a year and denied medical care that he needed.

No one has been arrested in Russia for his mistreatment.

The new action takes to 39 the number of people, mostly Russian officials, blacklisted under the Magnitsky Act.