In response to the sanctions Washington put on Moscow over the latter’s ongoing war in Ukraine, Russia has prohibited up to 200 Americans from entering the country.
The entry restrictions were made public on Friday by Russia’s foreign ministry. A sister and two brothers of US President Joe Biden, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, US Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and others were named as being affected.
Along with Matthew Kaminski, editor-in-chief of the US news and analysis website Politico, and Paul Pelosi, husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, other participants included leaders of corporations and pundits such US author and Russia specialist Anne Applebaum.
The people had “been involved in the promotion of the Russophobic campaign and support for the regime in Kiev,” the ministry claimed.
A slew of punitive actions have been taken against Russia by Washington and its Western allies as a result of the military conflict that has been ongoing in the neighbouring Ukraine since February.
According to the Kremlin, the operation was started to protect the pro-Russian populace in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk from Kiev’s repression.
The two republics split out from Ukraine back in 2014 after a democratically elected Ukrainian government that was pro-Russian had been ousted by a Western-backed government.
Since it began, the conflict has spread to further areas of eastern Ukraine as well as to parts of the former Soviet republic that are in the south.
Ben Stiller and Sean Penn, both stars of Hollywood, have already been denied entry into the Russian Federation as punishment for the American sanctions.