The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that Russia has banned 92 American citizens, including more than two dozen journalists. “The ban is in response to the Biden administration’s ‘Russophobic’ policy with the stated goal of ‘delivering a strategic defeat to Moscow,'” Russia’s national news agency Tass reported.
The list of US citizens sanctioned by Russia includes members of the US government, pro-democracy activists, academics and leaders of defense contracting firms and financial institutions that have supplied arms to Ukraine amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
According to the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry, some journalists from the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and New York Times have been mentioned in the list of sanctions. The list of banned individuals includes “editorial staff and journalists of major liberal-global publications involved in spreading falsehoods about Washington’s propaganda about Russia and the Russian military,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Among the journalists listed is Ama Tucker, editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The other 13 current or former WSJ employees on the list include the media’s editor-in-chief, head of the world news department, its Kiev bureau chief, former Moscow bureau chief and a member of its editorial board.
The names of five journalists from the New York Times, four journalists from the Washington Post and some journalists from Kelayati magazine are also listed in the list of banned people. US Space Command Commander Stephen Whiting, Space Systems Command Commander Philip Garrant and Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb are also on the sanctions list.
“Russia has issued this entry ban in response to the sanctions imposed by the US ruling class on Russia, and the practice of expanding this list to include people directly involved in anti-Russian activities will continue with determination and stability,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Earlier, the US had banned the supply of US-made and ‘US-branded’ goods to Russia and Belarus for the ‘Kremlin’s illegal war in Ukraine’.
