Moscow took a tit-for-tat move Saturday against Washington's so-called Magnitsky list by barring 18 U.S. nationals from entering Russia.

Those on the Russian blacklist are U.S. citizens either involved in torturing and holding convicts for indefinite detention in the Guantanamo prison or responsible for violating rights and freedom of Russian citizens abroad, according to the Russian foreign ministry.

"The war of lists is not our choice, but we have no right to ignore this open blackmail without response," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said, urging U.S. policymakers to stop tutoring and dictating Russia in their relationship.

The United States on Friday released a list of 18 Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses under the so-called Magnitsky Act, named after a Russian lawyer who died in a Russian prison in 2009.

Officials on the Magnitsky List will be denied entry to the United States and their assets in the United States will be frozen.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the publication of such lists would "highly negatively affect Russia-U.S. relations."

The U.S. Congress adopted the Magnitsky Act in December, imposing sanctions on Russian officials allegedly responsible for the lawyer's death. Their names had been kept secret.

Russia retaliated by passing the Anti-Magnitsky Act in January, barring U.S. citizens from adopting Russian orphans and banning Americans suspected of human rights violations from entering Russia.