U.S. places Russia on human trafficking, child soldier lists

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits the Office of Director of National Intelligence in McLean, Virginia, U.S., July 18, 2022. Saul Loeb/Pool via REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Tuesday placed Russia on lists of countries engaged in a "policy or pattern" of human trafficking and forced labor or whose security forces or government-backed armed groups recruit or use child soldiers.

The State Department included the lists in its annual human trafficking report, which for the first time featured under a 2019 congressional mandate a "State-Sponsored Trafficking in Persons" section.