WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Finance committees, Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, and author of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act and the Global Human Rights Accountability Act (S. 1933), made the following statement regarding the latest release of names to be added to the list of individuals held accountable for gross human rights violations under the law.

“The addition of 12 names to the Magnitsky sanctions list is yet another step toward holding human rights violators accountable when their home countries refuse to act. These sanctions are not sanctions against Russia, but against individuals who have committed serious human rights violations against Russians. Most significantly, these additions come as a direct result of an unprecedented Congressional trigger we built into the Magnitsky Act. I am fully committed to continuing the collaboration between Congress and the Obama Administration in implementing the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, working with administration officials like Tom Malinowski—our new Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor—to advance human rights in Russia and around the world.”