Former US President Barack Obama, late-night television host Stephen Colbert and Erin Burnett of CNN are some of the “500 Americans” that Russia has banned from entering the country.
Russia announced on Friday (19) that it was banning “500 Americans”, many prominent figures in the US executive branch, from entering the country “in response to the regularly anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the Joe Biden administration”, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
The list includes Obama, former US Ambassador Jon Huntsman, several US senators and the expected next president of the joint chiefs, Charles Q. Brown Jr.
The extensive list of names also includes American late night TV hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Colbert and Seth Meyers.
The statement also said: “The attached ‘500-list’ also includes those in government and law enforcement agencies who are directly involved in the persecution of dissidents following the so-called Storming of the Capitol.”
On January 6, 2021, dozens of supporters of former US President Donald Trump tried to stop Biden’s certification as President and attacked the US Capitol.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to question the arrest of the protesters a few months later, saying people came to Congress “with political demands”, Reuters reported.
Friday’s list also includes the anchor of CNN Erin Burnett and is an update to a previously published longer list of sanctioned individuals that includes the correspondent chief of international security for CNN Nick Paton Walsh, senior global affairs analyst Bianna Golodryga and contributor to CNN Timothy Naftali.
Although the list was labeled “500 Americans,” Paton Walsh is a British citizen.
The ministry justified the bans in a statement on its website that said: “It is time for Washington to learn that not a single hostile attack against Russia will go without a strong reaction.”
He did not specify claims against each individual or explain what the sanctions would mean beyond a ban on entering the county.
In addition, the ministry said it continues to deny a request by the US embassy for consular access to American journalist Evan Gershkovich “due to the failure to issue visas to Russian journalists from the Lavrov group”, in an apparent reference to the trip of the foreign minister of the Russia, Sergey Lavrov, to the United States in April.
Source: CNN Brasil
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