PARIS, France – Russia has imposed sanctions against U.S. President Joe Biden, his son, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, other U.S. officials, and ‘individuals associated with them’, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
‘In response to a series of unprecedented sanctions prohibiting, among other things, entry into the United States for top officials of the Russian Federation, from March 15 of this year, the Russian ‘stop list’ includes on the basis of reciprocity President J. Biden, Secretary A. Blinken, Secretary of Defense L.Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff M. Milley, as well as a number of department heads and prominent U.S. figures’, the statement read.
The statement went on to explain that this retaliation step was ‘an inevitable consequence of the extremely Rusophobic course taken by the current U.S. Administration, which, in a desperate attempt to maintain American hegemony, has relied, discarding all decency, on the frontal constricting of Russia’.
‘At the same time, we do not refuse to maintain official relations if they meet our national interests, and, if necessary, we will solve problems arising from the status of persons who appear on the ‘black list’ in order to organize high – level contacts’, the statement continues.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday addressed Russia’s recent sanctions against top U.S. Officials, suggesting the restrictions will not have much of an impact on their intended targets.
‘(I)t won’t surprise any of you that none of us are planning tourist trips to Russia, none of us have bank accounts that we won’t be able to access, so we will forget ahead’, Psaki told reporters during the White House press briefing when asked about the sanctions’ impact.
Psaki also noted thar Russia’s statement on the sanctions omitted that ‘President Biden is a ‘Junior’, joking that ‘they may have sanctioned his dad, may he rest in peace’.
Here is a list of people included in Russia’s ‘stop list’
- U.S. President Joe Biden
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken
- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
- Chiarman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley
- CIA Director William Burns
- White House press secretary Jen Psaki
- Daleep Singh, Biden’s deputy national security adviser for international economics
- United States Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power
- President Biden’s son Hunter Biden
- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
- Deputy Treasure Secretary Wally Adeyemo
- Reta Jo Lewis, president and chairman of the board of directors of the Export – Import Bank.
The statement announces more sanctions will follow to expand the list by including ‘top U.S. officials, military officials, lawmakers, businessmen, experts, and media people who are Russophobic or contribute to inciting hatred towards Russia and the introduction of restrictive measures’.
Russian government and its banking and other institutions will collectively carry out these sanctions, it added.
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