Russia bans entry to nearly 100 US nationals

Russia has imposed a ban on 92 US nationals, including over two dozen journalists, the Russian Foreign ministry announced on Thursday.

The sanctions have been made in “response to the Biden administration’s Russophobic policy with a stated goal of ‘inflicting a strategic defeat on Moscow’,” state media TASS said.

The list of US citizens includes members of the US government, pro-democracy activists, academics, and leaders of defence contracting firms and financial institutions that supply weapons to Ukraine to respond to Russia’s war.

The ban applies to some reporters from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry statement.

The list of sanctioned people include “editorial staff and reporters of leading liberal-globalist publications involved in the production and dissemination of false stories about Russia and the Russian armed forces and propaganda that covers up the ‘hybrid war’ unleashed by Washington,” the country’s foreign ministry said.

Among the journalists listed is Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker, who advocated for reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was released earlier this month in a prisoner swap.

Another 13 current or former employees at the WSJ on the list, include the outlet’s deputy editor-in-chief, its head of the world news division, its Kyiv bureau chief, its former Moscow bureau chief and a member of its editorial board.

Five New York Times journalists, four Washington Post journalists and a some reporters for British papers were also listed.

Commander of the US Space Command Stephen Whiting, Commander of Space Systems Command Philip Garrant, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Space Policy John Plumb also figure on the sanctions list.

The sanctions add to the list of more than 2,000 Americans who have already been barred entry to the country, including many US politicians.

The move as per the Russian foreign ministry is response to the “insane sanctions frenzy of the American ruling elite, the practice of expanding the list of people under entry bans will be continued with determination and consistency by including those who are directly involved in anti-Russian activities.”

The ministry statement said that it wants to remind the “current US authorities that punishment is inevitable for hostile acts” whether they directly encourage Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy and his “sidekicks” to “commit acts of aggression and terrorist attacks or represent attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation.”

Recently, the US Treasury Department stated that it has targeted companies and individuals “whose products and services enable Russia to sustain its military efforts and evade sanctions.”

The sanctions list released on August 23 includes 34 Russians, including Pavel Belousov, the son of the Russian Defence Minister Andrey Belousov.

Further, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that it is taking aggressive action to further restrict the supply of both US-origin and “US branded” (i.e., labeled) items to Russia and Belarus for “Kremlin’s illegal war on Ukraine.”

BIS has added 123 entities under 131 entries to the Entity List– 63 entities in Russia or the Crimea Region of Ukraine, 42 in China including Hong Kong and 14 entities in Turkiye, Iran, and Cyprus.

Since March 2022 the BIS has added 1,056 entries to the Entity List in response to Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and ongoing aggression against the country.