Amendments might be made later to anti-Magnitsky Act law – Russian Justice Ministry

MOSCOW. Dec 28 (Interfax) – In the future, amendments could be made to the law on measures against people responsible for human rights abuses against Russian citizens, which Russian President Vladimir Putin signed on Friday, Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov said.

“The practice will show in the future whether some adjustments should be made, and if yes, we will do so,” Konovalov told Interfax on Friday.

Konovalov denied that the Justice Ministry criticized the law. “We had some proposals of a technical-legal nature. Some of them were taken into consideration, including when the bill was passing through the State Duma,’ he said.

He explained that the Justice Ministry’s proposals concerned primarily the law’s compliance with international documents. “Some proposals could have been taken into consideration and others could have not. So many lawyers, so many opinions,” he said.

The Kremlin press service reported earlier on Friday that Putin signed into law the bill On measures to affect individuals involved in violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms and rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation. The legislation was designed to retaliate for the U.S. Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.