Former President Barack Obama is among “500 Americans” banned from entering Russia in response to a new round of US sanctions.
On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry published a list effectively blacklisting hundreds Americans from the country with immediate effect.
Individuals are banned by the Russian government for supplying Ukraine with arms and persecuting Americans who sought to stop Joe Biden’s certification as president on January 6, according to a press release issued by the ministry.
“The attached ‘list-500’ also includes those in government and law enforcement agencies who are directly involved in the persecution of dissidents in the wake of the so-called Storming the Capitol,” the ministry states.
“It is high time for Washington to learn that not a single attack against Russia will go without a strong reaction. The principle of inevitable punishment will be consistently applied, whether we are talking about tougher sanctions of discriminatory steps to hinder the professional activities of our citizens.
The Russian government has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the Biden administration’s prosecution of Americans who protested at the US Capitol on January 6.
“They weren’t just a crowd of robbers and rioters,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters after a 2021 meeting with Joe Biden in Geneva. “Those people came to the US Congress with political demands. Four hundred people, over 400 people had criminal charges placed on them…they’re being called domestic terrorists. They’re being accused of other crimes.”
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned Capitol rioters are being “persecuted” by the US government.
Obama is the first U.S. president to be blacklisted from a foreign nation.
Late-night TV hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers. MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Joe Scarborough, CNN Anchor Erin Burnett and NBC host Brian Williams are also among Americans barred entry from Russia.
Sens. J.D. Vance, Katie Britt and Eric Schmidtt and 45 members of the US House are among US lawmakers that are blacklisted.
Military officials are also on the list, including Secretaries of the Army and the Air Force, Christine Wormuth and Frank Kendall and USAF Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr. Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis was sanctioned for being on the board of General Dynamics, and ex-CIA director George Tenet as a board member of In-Q-Tel.
The ministry also announced on Friday that Russia will continue to deny US requests for consular access to detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerschkovic. Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 by Russia’s Federal Security Service while reporting in the city of Yekaterinburg. He is detained on allegations of espionage that The Wall Street Journal and the US government deny.
This move was triggered by the US refusal last month to allow visas to Russian journalists who wanted to cover Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to the United Nations, the ministry said in a statement.
“Washington should have learned a long time ago that not a single hostile attack on Russia will go unpunished,” it added.
J6 political prisoners are aghast that Putin is demonstrating more interest in protecting political dissent and the First Amendment than the US government and the GOP.
“It’s nice to know that Vladmif Putin is doing more to bring justice to J6 than our own leaders like Kevin McCarthy,” J6 defendant Jon Mellis told The Gateway Pundit Sunday. “Maybe Putin will say Roseanne Boyland’s name before the US members of Congress do.”
“Too bad our own president is not as concerned about American justice as Putin is,” added J6 defendant Billy Christmas.
