The bill that will become Russia’s response to the Magnitsky Act adopted in the United States could be signed into law by the Russian President before the end of the year, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Vyacheslav Nikonov told the Russia Today television station.

The bill could be adopted by the State Duma in the first reading and could be signed into law by the Russian President before the end of the year, Vyacheslav Nikonov said. Washington will not be happy with this law, he added.

The Magnitsky Act has already affected relations between Moscow and Washington, after the Russian authorities complained in early December about the improper quality of U.S. meat exports to Russia, Nikonov said. Similar situations could keep emerging, he said.

The U.S. list allows Washington to add new names to it in the future, Nikonov said. Russia and the U.S. could encounter a competition of blacklists and the broadening of their geography because the U.S. has called on other countries to compile their own Magnitsky Act-style lists, he said. Having repealed the Jackson-Vanik amendment, U.S. lawmakers could not fail to replace it by another anti-Russian law, Nikonov noted.

As far as the consequences are concerned, the Magnitsky Act, regrettably, could do even more harm than the Jackson-Vanik amendment, he said. At the same time, Nikonov said that the harm will not be caused directly to the persons tied to the Magnitsky investigation. To Nikonov’s knowledge, the Russian investigators, prosecutors, judges, prison administration staff, and other officials included in the Magnitsky list have not spent their weekends in Florida and do not keep their money in New York bank accounts.

However, the general hostile atmosphere could spread to other areas of bilateral relations and entail highly negative consequences, the Russian legislator said.

Sergei Magnitsky, who was accused of tax evasion under Russian Criminal Code Article 199, died at a Moscow detention facility on November 16, 2009. A criminal case has been opened into his death. Legislation imposing visa and economic sanctions against Russian officials suspected of being responsible for Magnitsky’s death was submitted to the U.S. Congress in April 2011. The Magnitsky Act in the U.S. House of Representatives was sponsored by Congressman Jim McGovern, while the Senate passed a similar bill sponsored by Senator Benjamin Cardin. The Magnitsky Act created a list of Russians who are barred from entering the U.S. even if U.S. visas were issued to them before the law took effect. All such visas would be annulled. In addition to visa sanctions, all bank accounts and assets belonging to the people on the list are to be frozen on U.S. territory.