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Biden, Blinken, Burns permanently banned entry to Russia

Saturday, 21 May 2022 5:33 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 22 May 2022 8:21 AM ]

US President Joe Biden speaks as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, US, July 20, 2021. (File photo by Reuters)

US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and CIA chief William Burns have been banned from entry to Russia as relations between the two world powers continue a constant downward spiral over the crisis in Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday published a blacklist containing 963 US nationals, including Biden, Blinken and Burns, banned from entering the country due to anti-Russian activities.

“In response to the continuously imposed anti-Russian sanctions from the US and incoming requests about the exact composition of our national ‘stop list’, the Russian Foreign Ministry has published a list of American citizens who are permanently banned from entering Russia,” the ministry announced in a statement.

Joe Biden's son, Hunter, Vice President Kamala Harris, actor Morgan Freeman and many US congressmen and journalists were named on the blacklist.

After Moscow launched its military campaign against Ukraine almost 3 months ago many countries imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia, and several Western states expelled Russian diplomats, to which Moscow responded in kind.

Russia expels 85 diplomats from France, Spain and Italy in retaliatory move

Russia on Wednesday declared 85 diplomats from France, Spain, and Italy "persona non grata" in a retaliatory move, effectively ordering their expulsion, as the war in Ukraine rages on.

Russia launched its special operation in Ukraine in late February, following Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements and Moscow’s recognition of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced one objective of the Russian campaign in neighboring Ukraine was what he described as a “special military operation” to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.

The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc.

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