Top US commander denied Russian visa in human rights row

Russia denied entry to a former commander of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in retaliation against US moves to punish Russian human rights violators, said deputy foreign minister Andrei Denisov yesterday.

The US finalised the Magnitsky Act, named after an anti-corruption lawyer who died in a Moscow jail in 2009, in December to bar entry for alleged Russian rights violators and freeze assets they hold in the US.

Rear Admiral Jeffrey Harbeson — a former commander at the Guantanamo US naval base in Cuba who now oversees Europe, Nato and Russia affairs at the US joint chiefs of staff — was denied a visa, a state-linked newspaper reported.