Russia slams critical U.S. human trafficking report

Russia believes a newly released U.S. report on human trafficking is politicized and hampers the work of law enforcement agencies in other countries, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

The U.S. State Department published its 2013 Trafficking in Persons report Tuesday, in which Russia received the lowest, "malicious," grade in terms of combating human trafficking.

"Such politicization of the trafficking issue, arbitrary ranking of the countries based on political sympathy or antipathy, drafting the lists of 'guilty ones' prevents normal work of the law enforcement agencies of our countries and their cooperation," Konstantin Dolgov, the ministry's human rights envoy, said in a statement.

Including Russia in "malicious category" goes in line with other unfriendly U.S. moves such as the Magnitsky Act, he said.

The U.S. act introduced a visa blacklist of Russian officials allegedly linked to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Russian prison in 2009.

Dolgov added that Washington wanted Russia to alter its legislation in order to avoid downgrading.

"That demand was inconceivable from the start. Russian authorities will never be guided with instructions drafted in another country," the diplomat said.

Dolgov expressed outrage with the U.S. threats to introduce sanctions against Russia based on the report's conclusions.

But he added Moscow is willing to work with Washington on human trafficking.