Russia on Tuesday imposed personal sanctions on 13 officials including U.S. President Joe Biden and the country's diplomatic, military, and intelligence chiefs. The move comes amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement, Moscow's Foreign Ministry announced the measures, imposed in response to sanctions against several Russian officials.
"This step, taken as a counter-reaction, was an inevitable consequence of the extremely Russophobic course taken by the current U.S. Administration, which, in a desperate attempt to preserve American hegemony, made a bet, discarding all decency, on the frontal containment of Russia," the ministry said.
It said these officials would no longer be allowed entry into Russia among other penalties.
"At the same time, we do not refuse to maintain official ties if they meet our national interests, and if necessary, we will solve problems arising from the status of persons who appear on the 'black list' in order to organize high-level contacts," it said.
The ministry published the following list of affected individuals:
1. Joe Biden, U.S. president
2. Anthony John Blinken, U.S. secretary of state
3. Lloyd James Austin III, U.S. secretary of defense
4. Mark Alexander Milley, chairperson of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
5. Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan, national security advisor to U.S. president
6. William Joseph Burns, CIA director
7. Jennifer Rene Psaki, White House spokesperson
8. Daleep Singh, deputy national security advisor to the U.S. president
9. Samantha Jane Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
10. Robert Hunter Biden, son of the U.S. president
11. Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, former presidential nominee
12. Adewale Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury
13. Reta Jo Lewis, chair of the U.S. Export-Import Bank
The statement also said that the list would be expanded in the near future with more senior U.S. officials, military, lawmakers, businesspeople, experts, and media personalities, "who are Russophobic or who contribute to inciting hatred against Russia and the imposing of restrictive measures on it."
It underlined that the measures were being taken to protect the Russian economy and ensure its sustainable development.
