Russia announced on May 19 that it has banned 500 U.S. citizens—including former President Barack Obama—from entering the country.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the decision is in response to the United States’ refusal last month to give visas to Russian journalists traveling with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to attend the U.N. Security Council.
“In response to the regularly imposed anti-Russian sanctions by the [U.S. President] Joe Biden administration, which, according to Washington’s plan, are designed to inflict maximum damage on Russia by personally affecting officials and ordinary citizens of our country, as a countermeasure, entry into the Russian Federation is closed for 500 Americans,” the statement reads.
In addition to Obama, the Russian blacklist includes many governors and members of Congress of both parties; attorneys general—current and former—from 20 U.S. states; former officials on the boards of think tanks “involved in spreading Russophobic fabrications and fakes”; and heads of defense industry companies supplying weapons to Ukraine.
“The attached ‘500 list’ also includes those in the government and law enforcement agencies who were directly involved in the persecution of dissidents following the so-called ‘storming of the Capitol,’” the statement reads.
This includes U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves and his predecessor Michael Sherwin, as well as Michael Leroy Byrd, the Capitol Police lieutenant “who killed Ashley Babbitt during the so-called storming of the Capitol.”
Other administration officials who made the blacklist include President Joe Biden’s senior adviser, Anita Dunn; former ambassador to Ukraine and current Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt; James Rubin, head of the Global Engagement Center; and State Department adviser Derek Chollet.
The list also features several celebrities, including talk-show hosts Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Joe Scarborough. Other media personalities included are political commentator Rachel Maddow, CNN commentator Erin Burnett, former NBC News anchor Brian Williams, and Voice of America radio director Yolanda López.
The bulk of the list is made up of people associated with prominent think tanks including the Brookings Institution, the Freedom House, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center for a New American Security, the Atlantic Council, and the RAND Corp.
Defense contractors General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, AM General, and General Atomics Corp. also take up a good portion of the list, including CIA intelligence contractor In-Q-Tel.
“The principle of the inevitability of punishment will be applied consistently, no matter whether we are talking about tougher sanctions or discriminatory steps aimed at hindering the professional activities of our fellow citizens,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.
