Breaking News UK: State Dept. considers adding Russians to sanctions list over human right violations

The United States is "actively considering" adding names of Russians involved in the incursion in Ukraine to the "Magnitsky list" of human rights offenders subject to visa bans and asset freezes, a U.S. State Department official said on Thursday. "We are actively considering adding new names," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rubin said at a House of Representatives committee hearing on the crisis in Ukraine. Under a 2012 U.S. law named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison, the United States targeted Russian officials involved in human rights abuses with visa bans and asset freezes. The State Department placed 18 Russian individuals on a public list of those affected, and a handful of other senior officials are on a list that was not made public.