Russia on Tuesday expanded its US ‘stop list’, which includes the wife and daughter of President Joe Biden and other prominent figures.
In recent months, Russia’s foreign ministry has compiled a list of foreign individuals and entities it believes have promoted a “Russophobic” agenda.
Those added to the list will be banned from entering the country indefinitely.
Biden and his family joined many US senators on the list, including Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Charles Grassley of Iowa and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
The blacklist also included several college professors and researchers and former US government officials.
The move was taken “in response to escalating US sanctions against Russian political and public figures,” the ministry said in a statement.
It comes just a day after the US announced a series of even more sanctions aimed at crippling Russia’s war effort by restricting Russia’s access to technology, global markets and trade, while destroying the assets of elites involved in the war effort. Vladimir Putin’s regime to be frozen.
Russia has put US President Joe Biden, his daughter Ashley (left) and wife Jill (right) on a stop list
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has in recent months compiled a list of foreign individuals and entities it believes have promoted a “Russophobic” agenda (photo by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov)
Zelensky spoke to G7 leaders, including Joe Biden, yesterday asking them for urgent help to end the war before the bitterly cold winter months. The US has since announced a series of new sanctions against Russian individuals and companies
Washington said yesterday that the G7 group of rich countries, whose leaders met this week in Germany, would issue a statement of support for Ukraine, including new sanctions pledges.
The Biden administration confirmed its intention to impose sanctions on hundreds of individuals and entities, target companies in several countries and impose tariffs on hundreds of Russian products.
The US has already imposed sanctions against more than 1,000 Russian elites and companies seen as complicit in the atrocities committed by Putin’s forces in Ukraine.
It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed G7 leaders yesterday morning, pleading with them to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
Such a move would have widespread impact, allowing the US to impose sanctions on dozens of countries doing business with Moscow and freeze Russian assets in America.
But even at the height of the Cold War, successive governments found an official designation of state-sponsored terrorism a step too far.
The announcement of new US sanctions against Russia came hours before Russian missiles fired on a packed shopping center in the central Ukraine’s Kremenchuk town, killing at least 18 people.
An estimated 1,000 people were in the shopping destination when it was hit by what Kiev said were two Russian AS-4 guided missiles — Soviet-era weapons originally designed to take out American aircraft carriers.
At least 60 people were injured in the attack, including 25 who are in hospital, although hundreds are still missing.
The strike sparked an inferno that destroyed the building and caused most of the roof to collapse, with firefighters working through the night to put out the blaze.
Those yet to be found are believed to have perished in the inferno.
Spectators gather as the mall is engulfed in flames shortly after it was hit by two Russian guided missiles on Monday, while an estimated 1,000 people were inside
Smoke rises from the ruins of the Amstor shopping center in the city of Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, after it was hit by long-range guided missiles that Ukraine says were fired by Russian bombers
Couple injured in a shopping center hit by a Russian missile attack holding hands at a hospital, expected death toll will continue to rise
G7 leaders labeled the rocket attacks “a war crime” and vowed that Putin and those responsible would be held accountable.
“Arbitrary attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime,” they said in a statement condemning the “appalling attack.”
Zelensky, meanwhile, called it “one of the most brutal terrorist acts in European history” in his evening telegram on Telegram.
“A peaceful city, an ordinary mall – women, children, ordinary citizens inside,” said Zelensky, who previously shared a video of the mall going up in flames with dozens of rescuers and a fire truck outside.
In a separate attack on Monday, Russian missiles killed at least eight civilians while collecting water in the eastern city of Lysychansk, Luhansk region governor Serhiy Haidai said.
Other strikes in Kiev and Kharkiv in recent days have also resulted in several deaths.