Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday slammed sanctions on a wide range of United States (US) government members, including President Joe Biden and a dozen other officials. Moscow’s move comes as a retaliatory response to the US-led Western sanctions that have targeted influential Russians—including Putin, Kremlin officials, and Russian oligarchs—and various Russian exports, particularly from its oil and gas sector.
Under the “stop list” enforced by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Biden, along with top bureaucrats from his cabinet, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Central Intelligence Association (CIA) Director William Burns, will be prohibited from entering Russia and have all their assets in the country frozen. The measures also apply to National Security Advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, and US Agency for International Development (USAID) Director Samantha Power.
The sanctions also target individuals not working in the White House, such as Biden’s son Hunter and former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
@RusEmbUSA #Comment regarding the new personal #sanctions imposed by 🇺🇸: another hostile action drives 🇷🇺-🇺🇸 relations further into an even more dead end. It hinders the maintainance of the few channels of interaction between our countries.
— Russian Embassy in USA 🇷🇺 (@RusEmbUSA) March 16, 2022
📎Read in full➡️https://t.co/CCK0P5UniS pic.twitter.com/poZdrG54XL
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry called the countersanctions an imminent result of the “extremely Russophobic” actions taken by the Biden administration. Moscow justified its decision by saying that the measures “protect the Russian economy and ensure its sustainable development.” It added that Washington’s efforts to reprimand Russia over Ukraine represents a “desperate attempt to maintain American hegemony.”
Additionally, Russia warned that the list of sanctions could grow to include more US officials, military members, lawmakers, businesspersons, experts, and people from the media that display Russophobia and incite hatred towards Russia.
However, the Foreign Ministry underscored that the “stop list” is not a complete severance of official relations, adding that if the need to organise high-level contact arises, the status of people on the list could be negotiated. In a separate interaction with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow is open to normalising ties with Washington on the condition of “mutual respect” and a “constructive approach.”
In response to the Russian sanctions, Press Secretary Psaki remarked that Moscow’s measures will not impact any of the aforementioned US officials, as they do not plan to go to Russia or have any accounts in Russian banks. Furthermore, Psaki affirmed that Washington is “confident” in its capacity to have direct diplomatic contact with Moscow.
Russia has sanctioned Joe Biden and a range of other top US officials.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) March 15, 2022
The main impact of this is they can now make corny jokes on cable news about how they won't be able to access their Russian bank accounts or go on vacation in Siberia, I guess pic.twitter.com/ZQWA0Mhg4R
In a similar vein, Russia also slammed countersanctions on 313 Canadians, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly, and Minister of National Defence Anita Anand over a newly passed measure by the Canadian Parliament.
Russia’s announcement of the “stop list” comes against the backdrop of Biden’s upcoming trip to Brussels, where he will attend an extraordinary North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting and will also attend a summit of the European Council.