Moscow said yesterday that Washington had dealt a severe blow to relations by barring 18 Russians from the US over alleged human rights abuses, and in retaliation it banned 18 Americans from entering Russia.

Obama’s national security adviser is to have talks tomorrow with senior officials

US President Barack Obama’s administration had on Friday issued a list of 18 people subject to visa bans and asset freezes in the US under the Magnitsky Act legislation passed by Congress late last year.

“Under pressure from Russophobic members of the US Congress, a powerful blow has been dealt to bilateral relations and mutual trust,” a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.

The mutual blacklisting could dim hopes voiced publicly by both sides of rehabilitating a relationship increasingly strained since President Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin last May.

Obama’s national security adviser is to have talks tomorrow with senior officials in Moscow – the highest-level face-to-face contact since the US President began a second term in January .

The Foreign Ministry listed 18 Americans subject to visa bans and asset freezes under a retaliatory law Putin signed in December that allowed such steps against Americans deemed to have violated the human rights of Russians abroad. That law also banned the adoption of Russian children by Americans.

The Americans barred from Russia include two officials from President George W. Bush’s Administration who the ministry said were linked to the “legalisation and application of torture” – David Addington, a former chief of staff of Vice-President Dick Cheney, and John Choon Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer.

The list includes two ex-commanders of the US military detention centres at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base.