MOSCOW, December 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will respond to the Magnitsky Act, approved by US legislators, by banning entry to Americans violating human rights, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The US Senate on Thursday passed the Magnitsky Act, which targets Russian officials deemed by Washington to have violated human rights.

“I have confirmed that we [Russia] will also close entry to Americans, who are really guilty of violating human rights,” Lavrov said commenting on his meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Dublin.

The bill specifically targets Russian officials considered by the White House to be involved in the death of Russian whistleblower lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, but it extends to other purported violators of human rights in Russia as well.

After Thursday’s Senate vote, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the Senate’s approval of the Magnitsky Act “a performance in the Theater of the Absurd.”