MOSCOW, April 5 - RAPSI. Jim McGovern (D-MA), one of the original sponsors of the Magnitsky Act, has forwarded the presidential administration his own list of 280 Russian officials he believes should be on the State Department's Magnitsky list, according to The Cable blog on the Foreign Policy magazine website.

Many of these officials are thought to be directly linked to the case of Magnitsky, the anti-corruption lawyer who died in a Russian detention center, and some are Putins personal associates, the blogger writes.

On McGovern's list, a link to which is given on The Cable, are the names of Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin, Chair of the Moscow City Court Olga Yegorova and other high-ranking officials.

Head of the State Duma International Affairs Committee Alexei Pushkov previously said that McGovern's list includes 240 officials.

McGovern's list is only a recommendation. The State Department must send a definitive list to Congress by April 13, but has hinted that it will try to avoid a broad interpretation of the Magnitsky Act and that Russian officials will be put on the list only if there is evidence of their guilt.

The Magnitsky Act was adopted in late 2012 and stipulates visa and economic sanctions against Russian officials presumed by US Congress to be guilty of violating human rights.

Hermitage Capital auditor Sergei Magnitsky was arrested on November 24, 2008 on suspicion of masterminding large-scale corporate tax evasion. He died in a Moscow pretrial detention center on November 16, 2009, after spending a year behind bars. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, Magnitsky died of heart failure.