US President Biden’s Wife, Daughter Among 25 More Americans Banned From Russia

US President Joe Biden’s wife and daughter are among 25 more Americans denied entry to Russia, the Russian foreign ministry announced on Tuesday.

“As a reaction to the constantly expanding US sanctions against Russian political and public figures, 25 American citizens are added to a ‘stop list,'” the ministry said.

The list included numerous US senators, including Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Charles Grassley of Iowa, and Susan Collins of Maine.

Several academic scholars, professors, and former government leaders from the US were also on the list.

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In May, Russia published a list of 963 Americans it claimed were barred from entering the country, as a culmination of previously stated actions against Biden and other key officials.

The nation, which has drawn widespread condemnation for its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, declared it would keep retaliating against what it called hostile US acts, Reuters reported.

The American officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, and CIA Director William Burns, were handed lifetime bans which were mostly symbolic.

Also on the list was Biden, vice president Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

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“In the context of response to the constantly imposed anti-Russian sanctions by the United States and in connection with incoming requests about the personal composition of our national ‘stop list,’ the Russian Foreign Ministry publishes a list of American citizens who are permanently banned from entering the Russian Federation,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

They came on the same day Biden signed a support package providing nearly $40 billion in aid for Ukraine.

The list also includes Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Republican senator in history with 42 years in the Senate, as well as Democrats Harry Reid, who led the Senate majority from 2007 to 2015, and former US presidential contender and longtime senator John McCain.

At the ages of 81, 82, and 88, respectively, McCain passed away in August 2018, Reid in December 2017, and Hatch on April 23, 2018.

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Notably, Donald Trump, who desired a tight relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin while serving as president from 2017 to 2021, is not on the list of people who are not allowed into the country.

The only prominent Trump administration official included in the ban was former secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

The actor Morgan Freeman, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, British journalist and CNN correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, and DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg are among those who are currently prohibited from entering Russia due to perceived slights against Putin or his administration.

Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Ben Wallace, and ten other British government officials were denied entry to Russia in April by the country’s foreign ministry.

The decision was made “in view of the unprecedented unfriendly action by the UK government,” the ministry said.