Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Russia has barred 29 Americans and 61 Canadians including US Vice President Kamala Harris, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, and dozen others from entering the country. The action taken by Russia is in retaliation to sanctions imposed by the United States over Ukraine.
The Foreign Ministry of Russia on April 23 issued a statement notifying that ‘people responsible for the Russophobic policies’ were not allowed to travel to Russia. The list issued by the Ministry includes delegates from the defence sector, business leaders, and journalists.
According to the reports, some of them specifically mentioned in the list are Pentagon spokesman John Kirby and Deputy Secretary of Defence Kathleen Hicks, ABC News television presenter George Stephanopoulos, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, and the Russia-focused Meduza news site’s editor Kevin Rothrock.
However, the list of 61 Canadians includes Cameron Ahmad, the director of communications to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Canadian Special Operations Forces Commander Steve Boivin. The United States’ recent sanctions imposed over Ukraine consist of economic measures to ban new investment in Russia, severe sanctions on two Russian financial institutions – Alfa-Bank and Sberbank, sanctions on critical major state-owned enterprises, and sanctions on Russian government officials and their family members, including President Putin’s adult children and relatives of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Earlier, the Russian government had barred British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and several top UK Cabinet ministers and politicians for their ‘unprecedented hostile actions’ of imposing sanctions over the Ukraine conflict. “In connection with the unprecedented hostile actions of the British government, expressed, in particular, in the imposition of sanctions against top officials of the Russian Federation, a decision was made to include key members of the British government and several political figures in the Russian ‘stop list’,” the statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation had read.
The full list of 13 British politicians on the stop list issued from Moscow included Indian-origin ministers – UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Home Secretary Priti Patel, and Attorney General Suella Braverman, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, and defence secretary, Ben Wallace.
