The Sergey Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act comes despite congressional efforts to lift the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik amendment restricting trade with Russia, Russia Today reports.

The bill, which was approved on Tuesday by the Foreign Relations Committee, would impose visa bans and asset freezes on Russians that the US accuses of human rights violations. Specifically it targets those linked to the death of the Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, who died following mistreatment in custody in 2009.

Moscow has strongly objected to the legislation and has warned of retaliatory measures if it becomes law. Russia views the Magnitsky list as interference in its internal affairs.

Despite the Obama administration's efforts to reset US-Russian relations, the draft enjoys strong support from both the Republicans and the Democrats. "This bill is universal," Senator Benjamin Cardin, Democrat from Maryland, who sponsored the bill said after the vote. "It's absolutely motivated by Sergey Magnitsky, but it's universal in its application."

A similar bill was passed by a House of Representatives committee earlier this month. The act has yet to be voted on in the full House, and will come into force only once President Obama has signed it.

The US has already barred several dozen Russian officials allegedly implicated in the death of the lawyer from the entering the country. Moscow responded last year by taking similar action against US officials accused of human rights violations.

If passed, the bill will replace the outdated Jackson-Vanik amendment passed in 1974, which barred favorable trade relations with the Soviet Union because it wouldn't allow Jews to leave the country.

The repeal of Jackson-Vanik is necessary if US businesses want greater access to the Russian markets as Russia joins the World Trade Organization this summer.

There is clearly politicization of this process given that it's coming at this time when President Obama is firmly on track to attempt to reset US-Russian relations, Daniel Wagner, CEO at Country Risk Solutions, told RT. "It's becoming more difficult for him to try to achieve that with everything else that's going on in the world."

"Perhaps Obama is getting bad advice from his advisors; perhaps his advisers are stuck in some Reaganesque foreign policy era that sees the world in black and white."

It is very ill-timed to have this kind of Cold War-era rhetoric flying about in Washington at a time when it really needs Russia's cooperation on a number of very important issues, Wagner stresses.