In response to a new round of US sanctions, Russia announced on Friday that it was banning 500 Americans from entering the country, including former President Barack Obama and comedian Stephen Colbert.
The list released by the State Department did not specify the complaints against each individual. But the ministry said the crimes include spreading Russophobia, supplying Ukraine with weapons and officials directly involved in the persecution of dissidents as a result of the so-called storming of the Capitol.”
The ban applies to 45 members of the House of Representatives, Sens. J. D. Vance, Katie Britt and Eric Schmitt and former ambassadors to Russia John Tefft and Jon Huntsman.
The department said it also denied a U.S. request for consular access to Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in late March on espionage charges. The ministry said it was in response to the United States’ refusal to grant visas to Russian journalists who wanted to cover Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to the United Nations last month.
The latest sanctions against Russia include tighter restrictions on individuals and companies involved in the war effort that have already been sanctioned. The financial sanctions were primarily aimed at non-payers of sanctions related to the purchase of technologies for the Kremlin.
Read Now:JWST records the largest water plume to date spewing from Saturn’s moon
