WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has blacklisted five Russians, including the government’s chief public investigator, who is a close aide to President Vladimir V. Putin, for human rights abuses, laying down a marker for President-elect Donald J. Trump less than two weeks before he takes office with a vow to thaw relations with Russia.

The sanctions, announced Monday by the Treasury Department, are not related to allegations of Russian hacking during the presidential election, according to a senior administration official. But they carry symbolic weight at a charged moment, as likely the last visible act the United States will take against Russia before power is transferred in Washington.

The biggest name added to the list is that of Aleksandr I. Bastrykin, who reports directly to Mr. Putin and has carried out political investigations on his behalf. Mr. Bastrykin, officials said, was complicit in the case of Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in detention in murky circumstances in November 2009 and for whom the Magnitsky Act was named.